Removing stuck drum brake covers...

Trying to get them off our XR4, clips were gone long ago, should be a simple procedure, remove handbrake, use some penetrating oil to un-stick the center of the cover from the hub cylinder, and no dice. I'm going to remove all brake fluid to hopefully get any remaining pressure off the system I can. Should I just use a BFH and something on the lip of the cover to smack it loose?

I'm not worried about damaging the drums as I'm converting to discs, so please, be honest in how to get them off easiest and fastest...

BFH and hearing protection.

Do the drums even turn? If not then the shoes are probably rusted to the drums. If they do turn there's probabably a groove or lip the shoes are getting stuck in. There should be an adjuster you can back off to retract the shoes away from the drum.

There isn't a bearing that's part of the drum on the XR4 is there?

If they don't turn, and there's no concern with keeping the drums, start smacking it with the BBH (Big Berkleying Hammer) to try and break the rust free. I've done that on some parts cars. Sometimes that's enough to break them free. Sometimes pry bars are involved too.

In reply to Rob_Mopar:

The manual says remove c-clips on each stud, remove cover, so supposedly there hub retaining nut doesn't have anything to do with the drum cover. I didn't think about a groove, these brakes are old so I'm not sure they might have bedded in pretty good. I'll look for an external adjustment on the back to see if I can get it released that way.

I perioically have problems removing the drums on my Nissan PU. Thankfully, they added 2 threaded holes in the durms into which you put a bolt and "press" the drum off the hub my screwing the bolts in. Check to see if you have such threaded holes.

My tow vehicle has massive drums in the rear and one of them had the adjusters freeze and dug some serious channels in the drums. The adjuster was so frozen that there was no hope of backing it off, even with massive amounts of pb blaster. Copious wailing on the drums with a BFH/BBH did nothing. I ended up putting a little air body saw through the adjuster hole and cut the adjuster in half and knocking it out of the way. The shoes were then free to move away from the drum and allow the drum to come off.

Being an HD truck, it has axle-over-drum so I had to take the axles off first. Sounds like you know what needs done, but make sure there's nothing like that in the way! (I would have really screwed something up if I hadn't removed the axles first.)

Maybe try heat and a BBH.

Smoke wrench and a BFH

I had a similar issue the last time I did brakes. I was pounding away at the backside of the rotor/drum (one of those internal drum parking brake setups) to try and get the thing to pop off.

A friend of mine came over and pulled an ax out of his truck, smacked it good on the face of the drum/caliper with the back of the ax and it came right off. The vibration was enough to break it loose.

All along I was trying with a rubber mallet. No wonder it wasnt working.

If it is loose from the hub but catches on the brake linings it will move a little like pulling against a spring. If this is the case the easiest way to remove is to use a chisel and cut off the ends of the nails. These are the metal studs that stick thru the backing plate and hold the springs that hold the shoes against the backing plate. You should see the heads of the nails (and yes they look like nail heads along the horizontal centerline of the backing plate. A chisel will break these right off and allow you to pull the drum loose in case the linings are holding it.

Rob_Mopar wrote: Do the drums even turn? If not then the shoes are probably rusted to the drums.

I took a drum off yesterday that was stuck that way. I shot WD40 onto the threads where they came through the drum. I also sprayed it into the groove between the drum and backing plate all the way around. I let it sit for several hours after that.

When I came back, I put a GIANT clamp on the drum. I used it like a big wrench, pulling and pushing on the end to spin the drum free of the shoes. After that I was able to pull it right off

If you squint a bit and use your imagination, you can see that the clamp looks like a giant wrench.

JoeyM wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: Do the drums even turn? If not then the shoes are probably rusted to the drums.

I took a drum off yesterday that was stuck that way. I shot WD40 onto the threads where they came through the drum. I also sprayed it into the groove between the drum and backing plate all the way around. I let it sit for several hours after that. When I came back, I put a GIANT clamp on the drum. I used it like a big wrench, pulling and pushing on the end to spin the drum free of the shoes. After that I was able to pull it right off If you squint a bit and use your imagination, you can see that the clamp looks like a giant wrench.

And if you squint a lttle harder, I beleive you will see the little threaded holes I was referrring to. May have made it a lot easier.

spitfirebill wrote:

JoeyM wrote: When I came back, I put a GIANT clamp on the drum. [...] If you squint a bit and use your imagination, you can see that the clamp looks like a giant wrench.

And if you squint a lttle harder, I beleive you will see the little threaded holes I was referrring to. May have made it a lot easier.

If you had given me this information yesterday it might have been useful.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you.....

I vote for BFH. Works for me every time.

But there are some cars that you have to unbolt a center nut to get them off as well. For instance, my fiancee's former car, a Chrysler Lebaron, is FWD, but for some reason, has a center nut on the rear hubs, like there's a halfshaft back there. Giant 1 1/4" nut or something like that that must come off to get the drum off. Make sure your vehicle isn't like that.

Heat 'em n beat 'em after all else fails.

I beat the crap outa my drums, and they were still frozen. I had to get em off, so I measured the holes, went to the autoparts store and bought a couple bolts that looked like they fit. one of em did so I screwed them in a couple turns and POP off came the drum. so easy Ill always do it that way now.

Well, I got them off

One side was simple, just undo the brake line and remove the wheel cylinder which let me ratchet the self-adjuster down to back off pressure so the drum slid right off.

Other side was a PITA. It decided to rust/fuse itself to the hub flange. The advice to hit it on it's face actually was what did the trick, I couldn't get it to free by hitting it on the edges or from the back, but once I started really smacking that berkeleyer's face up it gave up the ghost...

And my wheel cylinder (if you can call it that) had literally fallen apart inside the drum. The only thing holding the cylinders in place was the shoes, the whole thing fell apart when I opened it up, and the inside of the drum was completely soaked in brake fluid...

Those little holes only help if it isnt so stuck that it strips the holes.