Help with drums

Potentially, neither of mine could be turned when I removed them with the bolts and all the hardware would have been reusable. I replaced it all anyway because I had it on hand and had planned to anyway, but none of it looked broken. I could definitely see how it could break some hardware by removing it that way, but that wasn't my experience. The holes are there specifically for removing the drum, and you only need to break past the thin lip of rust, or in this case potentially ice, then the drum will be free and slide right off. I'm not an expert by any means, just my experience.

 

Problem is...if it's not a thin lip of rust but a thick one, or something else. Unfortunately, one cannot see the extent of the problem until the drum is off...that's the rub.

All the hardware is designed to keep light tension on the shoes against the backing plate, mostly so they don't rattle. There are no forces under braking that would pick the shoes up off the backing plate unless some gomer who took to fast and deep of a cut when they machined the drum (and then only on side).

It doesn't take much to pop the heads of the hold-down nails and tear the friction off the shoe sideways.

 

Very true. I definitely wouldn't recommend torqueing the bolts heavily. If it takes that much force, I agree, stuff is gonna break. With the drums I did, I was beating on them with a hammer for hours before I tried the bolts, and with those, some very slight torque with a ratchet popped them right off with no harm done.

 

Yup heat and patience. As mentioned above the bolt method is meant to free the drum from the hub. If the shoes are engaged against the drum and you try the bolts youll probably damage something

 

You could try driving it around for a mile or two, if the shoes are frozen this should create enough heat to free them.

If you use the M8 bolts, tighten until you get resistance plus 1/8 turn smack drum with hammer and see if the bolts loosened up any. If they did rinse and repeat, if they didn't stop b/c you'll likely damage the drum, shoes or backing plate.

If you think it is the parking brake you can wiggle the cable right before it goes into drum sometimes this'll free it up.

 

Fixed it. Tried the M8 method and it seemed to do the trick. I'm going to go drive around the neighborhood for a bit. But thanks everyone!

 

You understand that with the brakes stuck the truck won't fucking move....right?

 

I think this poster thought that the drum was just stuck to the hub, not that the brakes were locked up.