I'm making a return trip to a boneyard this weekend. Got my eyes on some Buick finned front drums. Noway are they going to come right off. The shoes won't let them. I was thinking of using a 3 jaw puller and crank away. Something will let loose. Other than loosening the adjuster, any other ideas? No torches allowed.
Find the head of the shoe retainer "nails" on the back of the backing plate. Cut the head off with some dikes/sidecutting pliers. The shoes should then come with the drum as you remove it. Watch out for flying springs as everything inside falls on the ground. You are luckier than I am, if the adjuster still works.
I found a pair of 58 drums once,and the only way I could get them was to Sawzall through the upper and lower control arms .That was not fun! Then when I got them back to the shop,I had to remove the bearings,then torch the backing plates around the spindle.Then I could remove the backing plates and all the old brake parts.YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY
Use torch (or whatever) to cut adjuster in half. If you're careful it won't hurt backing plate much. Drum comes right off. Quick and dirty. Regards, Ron
I always take the wheel cyl. bolts out, and cut the retainers as mentioned. Then the whole guts come out.
With these what I would do is this - As mentioned, cut the retainer pins and pull the wheel cylinder bolts. You might even remove the bolt for the big shoe locator pin above the wheel cylinder. If they're still hanging up, take a cheap screwdrvier, hammer it into the shoe lining, and hammer it down along in between the shoe and the drum as far as you can go on both shoes. Helps to use a lugwrench as a pry bar to make yourself some clearance, here. That usually gets it to where you can slide the whole mess off, or at least far enough where you can pry the shoes the rest of the way off. No torch needed -
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