Well, the title pretty much says it all. The rear brakes have been extremely worn on the car since I bought it. So I decided to go ahead and replace them. I went to the Auto Parts store yestrday night and bought new drums and new shoes. BUT, I went and started the replaceing today, and I've run into an issue with the Drivers side rear drum.... the problem is, I can't freakin get it off! I took off the passengers side drum and it looked HORRIBLE, there was a nasty lip on it and I'm not sure how I got it off in the first place, well, now that I have that side all taken apart (Everything is neatly organized) I have no idea how to get it back on, lol, well, minor problem I thought... I'll just pop over to the drivers side and take the drum off and see how its assembled. Welp, I get over there, and start yanking on it... damn thing moves a tiny bit and all sorts of charred dust and peices start falling out of the bottom, but no ammount of yanking, pounding or prying will make it move any farther, and on top of that, I'm afraid that if I DO happen to get it off, I may damage some of the components in there if I pull to hard (Could be wrong, but I'd rather be safe than sorry). Can someone give me some idea as to what I can do to get it off? Any help, would, as always, be much appreciated

Thanks guys/gals!

Adam

BTW - I'm not sure just how retarded a question this is, or if I've missed somthing. But, without my Haynes manual I really can't check anything out. But I think this is more of a completely worn out and overused-while-worn-out thing, so I doubt its in the book.

 

don't quote me on this but here it goes...
take the emergancy brake off to see if this helps, if not use a hammer and tap all around the drum then tap the back side to make it come to you. If it slides to you and stops then tap it back to the car then tap it back towards you.

 

I'll go and give it a try... I'll let you know what happens

Adam

 

The lip on the drum from being let go so long is what's holding the drum on, by grabbing teh shoes; and the 2 little pins that look like nails are holding the shoes on... grind them off, and the whole thing, shoes, drums, hardware and all, will come off as a unit. Then just get a new hardware kit at the parts store. If you do one side that way, do the other side too, it's only like $10 for the hardware kit.

 

there should be a small cutout behind the drum to insert a flathead screw driver of some sort and click a wheel to pull the shoes in a little to get some pressure off the drum so u can pull it off. also hitting it with a hammer wont break anything so dont be afraid to give it a couple whacks to break it loose. but adjust the star wheel first. i think they make a special tool that makes it easier to turn but a screw driver will work sometimes, just not as easy.

 

ChaosRanger: I tried the thing with hammering it.... no luck.

RB83L69: I Can't get out anywhere ATM, and I don't really have the cash for the Hardware kit. I may be able to scrounge up enough for one side, But I dunno about both sides.

TekViper: I think I know the star thing your talking about, its inside the actual drum right? And its the peice that pushes on each of the shoes. I may try that before cuting any peices off (Just because I may not have cash to do it)

Also, is there anyone that can post a pic of what the shoes look like installed? Or a diagram on how everything goes back together? I'd apprecaite it.

Thanks for your help so far guys!

Adam

 

*UPDATE*

Can't find the slot your talking about Viper, was just lookin for it and can't seem to locate anything of the sort. And I can't get enough room to stick a screw-driver up underneath it.

I may have to go with grinding it

Adam

 

sometimes theres a little punch out u need to remove to get to the slot for the star adjuster.

 

the slot behind the drum is covered by a rubber ... feel for it. its oval in shap.

here are some images on a web site that I looked for.
http://www.dippy.org/svcman/sm05b.html

 

Allright, got it off!
*Yay Self*

Now.... I need to see a diagram on how to re-assemble it (I used the method RB83L69 gave me, so I don't really have an acurate diagram anymore... and the on that ChaosRanger gave me doesn't look like mine at all, I mean, if someone could give me some idea as to not worry about in that pic, I Suppose it wouldn't be a big deal, but as it stands it doesn't look like mine all that much) So, if anyone has an accurate diagram of there 3rd Gen Drum Brakes I'd appreciate it, even if its a scan of the pages in the Haynes manual Thanks again guys!

Adam

 

good to see that you got it off. i had the same probem i took gear lub and poured allinside the druma nd put the car in gear on jackes and reved her real hard in 1st. that broke t loose then power braked for a couple seconds. hen hopped out of the car put my race gloves on a a friend bagge it witha hammer and i pulled it off with a crowbar. but i messed everything up, but it was ok, everything was gonna be replaced. they were the orinal brakes on a car wit 76k miles

 

I had this problem too... what a nightmare. I backed the star wheel off so the shoes weren't anywhere near the drum- still no good. The damn thing was rusted to the axle hub. Even tried using a hammer sideways on it. The holes in the drum for the lug nuts are a -bit- oversized. I was tapping the side of the drum so the drum would move on the lugs an 1/8th inch, then I'd tap back the other way. STILL didn't move. Tried using a screwdriver and pick to dig around the center outside of the drum where the drum hugged the center of the axle hub- still no good.

Finally started spraying the sucker down (at the axle hub) with PB blaster for a week straight. Tried again next weekend; gave it a good yank, and wound up on my *** outside- the thing slid off, and I fell backwards. Funny part; no ridge at all on the inside of the drum! Took some sandpaper to that part of the drum, and guess how much antisieze went on the axle hub?

That's what I get for buying a junkyard axle, eh?