Went to change my rear pads last night and to my surprise the manual said that you dont need to remove the wheel bearings and hub, is there in fact a seem and mine is just being stuborn? I then decided that I could remove the bearings and take off in one piece, but there is some weird locking thing in the key way which I have never seen before. How is this removed?

 

The drum should just pop off. Sometimes they have a couple of those star washers that hold them on which need to be pried off first. They also get rusted a little tight also.

 

First jack up the rear of the truck and place on some good jack stands. Then remove the rear wheels. If you have the retainers that thread onto the studs, you will need to remove those. Thread two or three lug nuts on the studs, about half way down. Start the truck and place the trans in reverse. Rev the engine to build some speed and apply the brakes quickly. The drums should pop right off when you do this. If they are really stuck you may need to do this a couple of times. I did mine this way and they came off after a couple of tries. When I did my dad's truck (2000) they came right off the first try.

HTH
Max

 

hey thats a pretty cool trick! i used to just pound on em

 

try a propane torch ... i have used hot water when i didn`t have any other heat source

 

Make sure u got lug nuts screwed on, they keep the drums from vacating ur working area!!

 

I haven't tried beating on drums with a hammer even once since learning the slam on the brake method years ago. If they don't pull off easily by hand it 's time to start the truck. I've ran into quite a few where the brakes have to be slammed on in forward and reverse several times. I've never put more than one lug nut back on loosely.

 

thats a pretty good tip, i'll have to try that, i have been using the pound and yell method for years

 

Thanks guys Ill give that a go as soon as I can pry myself away from working on the rock crawler! Anyone know how to get the little tin thing out of the key way to get the axle nut off for future reference?

 

i read this thing about six times, and the only thing i can think of (as i have rear disks) is it is set up like a typical HD drum set-up, you may have taken off the first nut, then there is a locking ring, should have several holes in it and be keyed in the keyway. this should just come out by prying it with a small screwdriver or a 90* pic. then there will be another nut, be careful as this nut has a little peg on the front of it which lines up with one of the holes of the washer you just took out. it has to go back in the same way, snug it down, then put the washer on to lock in one of the holes, it can be flipped or just tighten/loosen slightly to line up the hole with the peg.

hope this is what your talking about, or i just did alot of typing for nothin