Drum removal help

We've put lots of heat into this. Lots of pressure on the puller. Lots of banging, even using an air hammer, on a glowing drum, with a tight puller. Any other advice?

Another pic

I realize this is a stupid thing to ask, but I've done this before: The parking brake is off, right?

Do you want to save it? If not, cut some notches in it 180 degrees out with an angle grinder and whollop it with a hammer and cold chisel until it cracks.

Are the adjusters backed all the way off?

How big is your puller? Have you tried impact gun+puller?

Can you drive it a little bit with the nut backed off a castle or two? I recall reading that as a last resort trick for VW rear drums.

The drums spin freely, and the ebrake somewhat functions. They appear to be only held on by the taper of the axle, with a woodruff key. We haven't run the impact on it yet, and we're using an auto parts store rental puller, so it's not the beefiest one out there. I have cranked with a 24" breaker bar, so I've got a ton of force pulling on this. I think the drums may be the same as a '60's Ford Cortina, but I don't want to trash them yet.

We've probably cooked all the grease out of the bearings, so driving it may not be an option. Plus, I'm trying to get the ebrake working better before I go drive the thing.

This is the tool you need:

It's a heavy duty drum / flange puller made by OTC.

I use one at work and it's never failed, even on rusted together, 80-year old hubs.

Bolt the legs down tight, grease the screw and the point, leave the nut on the axle end so the drum doesn't end up in your lap.

Run the screw down hand tight and use a dead-blow hammer or club hammer and a block of wood to knock that dogbone clockwise.

Drum and hub will come right off, probably with a loud bang.

Shawn

Good call, Shawn. I'll get one tomorrow-I think my uncle has one. I forgot how good those hub pullers are.

Shotgun.

What kind of car is that?

Aren't Ford Cortina drums 4-lug not 5?

Does that pull on the lug bolts and press down on the axle in the center? That would yank the axle against itself. You need a big honker like that but grabbing the outside edge of the drum.

The Center nut and age tells me you have a hub on a tapered axle with or with out splines, so yes you'll need the lug type puller above. WARNING: DO NOT stand behind the puller stand off to the side. Yes it will come flying off and can travel 20ft in 2 milliseconds....

I had the same issue with a packard with the same design. The most common advice was use the puller shown in the previous post, put a ton of pressure on it with the axle nut loosely on, and walk away for the night. It will usually be popped free by the next morning.

We left a puller on it for weeks, and it didn't pop off. Then we shelved the project, and now we've got back on it. This time with heat, etc. This is a 5-lug hub, so the Cortina thing may be a poor Internet rumor. I am leaving the nut on, both to capture the drum if it comes off, and to prevent mushrooming the axle. This is on the Eisenhower Era West Coast Mailster utility vehicle.

Are you sure that the shoes aren't interfering with the drum?

Yeah. Before you go applying overwhelming force I'd find the adjuster and back it all the way back. Sometimes brake shoes wear the drum material and that leaves a little lip on the inside edge of the drum. That lip catches on the edge of the shoes and won't let the drum slide off. If you pull hard enough to overcome that lip you will spew parts everywhere like little projectiles. If you back the adjuster all the way out the shoe springs should pull the shoes in tight enough to clear any lip.

In reply to itsarebuild:

I've had to hit the sides of the drum to 'rattle/wiggle' the shoes around and slowly walk the drum off while striking it.

In reply to 914Driver:

It's a two-piece axle. This puller separates the hub from the axle, taking the drum with it.

If the drum has not budged on it's own, chances are the knurl on the studs also holds the drum to the flange.

Look at my post in tech tips about pulling a drum

No knurl. I got one from off. I'll explain more later. Other drum is stuck tight as a, well, you know...

In reply to Grtechguy:

Great ideas. We may alter your suggestions to work on our application. We do have a better puller now.

I have had epic battles with gears held on by similar means. Fortunately the gears are never rusty. What I do, which has always worked eventually, is to put the puller on and tighten it down, then heat the gear volcano hot. Next, if it doesn't pop of on it's own, strike the gear or shaft of the puller, and be ready for a glowing hot gear to go flying (because on the gearbox that I'm thinking of, there is no nut to leave in place to catch it).

Edit: customers really love the bill on this job: bearings and seals $50. Labor $750-$1000.

Also, was the puller screw greased? This is important as you otherwise put a lot more torque in for the same amount of pulling force. Regular EP wheel bearing grease will do. I suggest the impact because it does the hammering component for you, often better than you can. I run into this when splitting ball joints and tie rod ends, I can crank the bolt down and hit it, crank, hit, crank, hit, pop, or run it home on the impact and watch it pop with less preload.

I'm failing to believe this is an adjuster issue, you'll rip the spring cups of the hold down pins with a puller. This is probably an old school one piece drum, no flange under there, just the shaft.