Best way to freeze up rusted drums

often we come across cars in a pasture, sitting, so forth and the drums are rusted, wheels will not turn. What is the best and easiest way to free them? heat from the torch? wd-40 or similar on the backside of the drum? Often we are in a hurry or the car is far away so we dont have a lot of time A quicker suggestion would be excellent. Come-alonging a car on a trailer with rusted brakes flat out ****s.

 

Pull the drums, yank the shoes/springs, install the drums, roll the car around. It's obvious that you're going to need to rebuild the brakes if they are rusted stuck, so it doesn't hurt anything to pop the shoes/springs out to move the car around, then install new brake hardware when you get to that point during the build.

 

banging the backing plates with a hammer sometimes works.

 

invest in an electric winch and drag it up.

 

You did bring a torch set and a few buckets of water,right? Heat the drum with a large cutting tip,move the heat around the drum..heat to about 300 degrees,quench with water.if the shoes were stuck to the drum they should be free now..

 

BFH...and a strong arm

 

I've always had success by using a sledge hammer and whacking the drum between the lugs. You're bouncing the drum against the axle and once it moves a little, it will move more as you continue whacking it. The hot wrench is a lot easier though! Good luck!

 

Cordless drill and drill a hole in the backing plate and start pumping grease gun into them ,Or wd40 .Id use grease ,Sounds like it needs restoration anyway ........Also the harbor freight winch is pretty good in your situation ,I adapted one to my trailer made real long jumper cables to connect to car battery and works great ,Usually you only have one stubborn wheel ,The others roll or break free........

 

hammer away, usually with a rock or some discarded car part.
It usually cold and windy while youre doing this. neel down in the mud the car has sunk in, slide a jack under the frame, break the lugs loose, break a wheel stud off if youre in the mood, lift it up, pull the wheel, hammer away on the drum with your rock of choice. use the tire iron to leverage against the wheel studs to get the axle turning, bend another wheel stud if youre lucky hopefully not enough that the wheel wont fit back on.

 

Quick and dirty method:
I been helping a friend cleanup his property off and on for the last few months, over a dozen 60's - early 70's era cars have been moved around and most of them had frozen brakes.
I have had real good luck with popping the hubcaps off and hitting the wheel around the dogdish ring hard a good 5-6 times with a sledge hammer. All but just a few of the wheels began to spin after that.

 

indyjps:
You nailed it perfectly although you may have given up to soon if you didn't heat the drums resulting in a large gr*** fire which heads for the Gas tank. Also don't forget to hit the drum with the big rock and break a large section off of the drums.

 

Carcrazyjohn, which HF winch do you have been looking at one for my trailer, I'v had some of their stuff use it once throw it away!

 

...and the rock breaks and 2 of your fingers hit the lugs taking big chuncks of skin with em!

 

wow all these ideas! but only a few of these sound as if they have been field tested!!
how ever, a couple of these gave me an idea........ (rock on wheel studs? WTF??) if a guy could drive the wheel stud out (or in as it where) it would provide a neat hole to use your favorite penitrating oil. I have several froze for years and have soaked with all kinds of oils , no luck. I could be interested in a thread called "how to UNFREEZE stuck drums"

 

take the bolts out of the wheel cylinder, punch it into the wheel and the shoes will usually collapse allowing you to pull the drums, remove the junk, put em back on to roll it or it will sometimes roll from there . not fool proof but has worked many times and saves
the drums and your knuckles

 

how far you got to move them? I rope towed a buddies VW notchback home about 5 miles with one brake locked up. squeeling the whole way and a 5 mile black mark behind us. tire popped just as we got to his house.

 

Been there and done that more than once. I've had to back brake shoes off a lot of times too to help the process but half the time the adjuster is rusted solid along with the shoes being rusted to the drum.

Carcrazy John I think this is one of the winches that guys are buying for their trailers.
http://www.harborfreight.com/8000-lb-electric-winch-with-automatic-brake-67576.html They also have a 10000 one for a hundred dollars more.

I've got one of their 2500 lb winches on my sailboat to pull the mast up and I am more than happy with it. It turned a real pain in the **** job into a simple process. But it is pretty noisy although that isn't an issue as I only use it to raise and lower the mast while on the trailer.

 

maybe torch the adjuster but the shoes are against the anchor pins.

 

39 to 48's don't have the upper anchor and from 48 up where there is one on a ford or merc just take the nut off the back and let it fall thru also. always take plenty of good
penetrating oil such as Kroil

 

I have the cheapest 2000 lb on my car trailer and I just keep it covered with a trashbag ,Its sufficient for old cars.The drll and grease mehod does work ,Just need alot of grease and hole must be in the top...And here is one drill hole in yop of backing plate and pump keroscene inside drum ,Need to drill bigger hole .

 

thanks for the tips

 

I really like the idea of this, thanks for the tip!
And I second the Kroil plug! Its my new PB replacement!

-Torr

 

This has become my most successful method of moving/removing rusted drums. Started doing it a few years ago when nothing else worked very well, short of torching the drum centers out.

Ray

 

I had pair of drums that were stuck for years and just tried the Kroil trick and it worked great!

 

Ahhh, you've been there.

 

You been there too.

 

Hell, we all been there.

 

Along with punching the wheel cylinder in, if they are the type with the pin through the backing plate and the coil spring and keeper,I have chiseled or ground the head off on the backside and that will sometimes let the shoes loose.

 

I dont waste time on penetrating oil,grease,stuff.OP stated being in a hurry.
Fire up the torch and cut around the center which leaves the hubs free to turn.
Around here the drums are rusted so bad inside replacements are needed anyway
so why waste time.