Got an English Axle with a drum brake I cannot get off.

It's free around the edges as I can get the pry bar and flex it against the back plate. I can see it's not stuck on the studs as it also flexes around them.

It seems to be stuck on the centre of the shaft. I have tried hitting it into next week, using WD40 on it, an levering it all around for several hours but the f%$£&ng thing still wont come off.

Does anyone have any non destructive suggestions on how to get the bleeding thing off before I have to chain drill it and shatter it to pieces?

Cheers.

Have you tried heating the drum?

When you put drums back on coat the mating surfaces with Vaseline.

Does it seem springy? lol.
if so it could be the shoes catching on the worn lip of the drum. persistence and force usually work.

I (vaguely) remember having this problem with my Escort axle when I built my car.

The problem with mine was that the drum seemed to have 'spread' around the wheel studs and locked itself solid onto the centre bore lip on the halfshaft.

I think brute force finally shifted it, then had to file the drum slightly around this lip to be able to get it all back together....

I'll put money on it not being the shaft but the shoes. When you try and pull the drum off, the shoes tilt with it and that effectively jams them against the drum.

The best way is to try and back-off the adjuster fully and that should give enough clearance to get them off.

Also another vote for stuck on a/the wear lip on the drums/shoes. De adjust hand brake cable THEN try and de adjust manul/auto adjuster. There is (used to be) a small hole either in the drum face OR on the back plate for you to get a thin tool in undoo/release the adjuster mechanism.

HTH

JGG


edit bit. When refiting either use new drums and shoes or remove the wear lip with a file or angry grinder.

[Edited on 29/8/12 by jollygreengiant]

If the drum is lipped, No1 big mell is the solution. Ive never destroyed a drum hitting it, but they always come off.



My Lada rear drums never wanted to come off, everytime they did the lip lost more chunks....

Which side is it? I had the nearside one off, but not the offside...

Offside, NS came of reasonably easy

Have you undone the locating screws

Ah, ok. On the nearside, I just beat the crap out of it with a hammer, used release spray, and levered it as much as I could. I think it was a combination of being stuck on the central spigot and the brake shoes.

There wasn't a screw (that I noticed) on the NS so I assume there isn't one on the OS....

Will see if I can release the pads more in case it is them but there was hardly any lip at all on the one that came off.

I've just been through this. The problem was caused by the hydrailic cylinder jamming, so the shoes were tight inside the drum.

I used a blowtorch to loosen the drum on the centre of the axle - after this I could see the drum moving relative to the centre. To get the drum over the shoes, I used a combination of a crowbar, and hitting the drum from behind with a hammer and cold chisel. No room for delicacy here! Eventually it moved.

The backplate is quite flexible, and this makes levering against it ineffective. There were no screws to hold the drum on, the wheel does this.

When you do get the drum off, you might well find you have the self-adjusting mechanism, rather than manual adjuster. These are terrible! Give it a good clean-up.

Good luck!

Geoff

[Edited on 29/8/12 by gdische]

I used a 3 legged puller....gets them everytime.

I've had this problem before, the centre shaft rusts onto the drum, brute force and ignorance works for me.
They can be STUCK, good luck

I have a 3 legged puller but it is way too small to get around the drum.

Will try hitting it harder tonight....

If you cant (as mentioned above) loose off the shoes in anyway by reaching the adjusters etcm, then you could try getting a long flat head screwdriver (or several) and open up the gap between back plate and drum as much as you can and then try levering or taping the lip of the brake shoe away from the drum.

I find, no matter how tight they seem. The combination of winding the shoes fully back in, heating the crap out of it, and a load of brute force will get them every time. I did the ones on my navara a couple of weeks ago, and the brake dust had actually siezed the guts of the thing together. Best of luck!

Try hitting the drum hard between the wheel studs so that it "bounces" against the halfshaft, Hitting it around the outside can distort the drum .

Well, had a look and no screw holding it on. Neither is there a hole to wind the auto adjuster back. Not got anything to heat it with apart from a weedy blow torch but I'd do better holding a match to it.

So hopefully the neighbours dont mind but I'll have to tw@t the hell out of it and see what happens

Grrrrrrrr....

(Thanks for the ideas so far)

Hmmmm.. some assumptions going on here that the adjusters are actually errr... adjustable. Let's aasume they aren't, otherwise you'd have slackened them off.

Apart from seizure to the studs/hub/whatever, if it's a stuck slave cylinder then it might be worth undoing the (pipe?) and the mounting bolt giving you a bit of cylinder wiggle. Might help?

why dont you cut the drum off, and convert to disks


Problem over

There are no accessible adjusters to un-adjust I'm afraid.

I have loosed the cylinder off but when I try to prise the drum off it doesn't move like I would expect if the drum lip was catching in the shoes. So it all still points me to it being stuck on the centre of the shaft.

Think I need a bigger hammer....

As for converting to disks....too much ££ and I dont think the disks are worthwhile on the rear.

So another soak in WD40 tonight and a trip to B&Q to get a bigger hammer and some more cutting discs....

[Edited on 29/8/12 by Alfa145]

quote:

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Originally posted by Alfa145
So another soak in WD40 tonight

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I suggest wooden wedges between the drum and back plate just to give a bit off pull on the drum, then lots of hammer work. You don't need a huge hammer or to swing it like an angry thug. Just lots of well-aimed bats between the studs/around the spigot. If you're in a buying mood, buy a copper mallet. Patience.......

Why a copper Mallet?

Grind the head off the brake shoe retaining pin that locates through the back plate. This will allow the the shoes to come away from the back plate enough to be able to pull the drum off or at least be able to get a screwdriver between the drum and backplate and lever the shoe over the lip of the drum.

quote:

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Why a copper Mallet?

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.....^ that. Plus, if you whack the wheel studs or edge of the spigot, you're less likely to damage them.



And it's always nice to buy shiny tools.

Wooooo!

The drum is now separated from the axle Ordered some plus gas, gave it a soaking tonight and put my homebrew 2 leg puller on it and gave it several almighty clonks with my hammer and it moved.

It was stuck on the lip and not the shoes. Phew, at least I dont need to buy new drums now. Just new shoes as everything has been covered in WD40/Plus gas

Thanks for the tips and advice