Need some instructions please! My daughters 71 Nova needs to have a rear wheel cylinder replaced. The problem that I have ran into is that the drum does not have a way to release the pressure on the brake shoes so that means I cant get the drum off...I thought that it was suppose to have a little window that you could reach in and back off the pressure on the shoes..
How do you remove the drum without a cutting torch


Thanks
Rick

 

Did you try the old
Jack it up and remove the tire,, then put a couple of lug-nuts on about half way,,
With the rear of the car sitting safely on jack-stands,,,, front wheels chocked,,,
Start the car and put it in gear,,,,, take your foot off the brake and slowly accelerate,,,, then press the brakes to stop.

I did this on my Ram and it actually broke free when I dropped it in gear. This is an old mechanic's trick that has been posted on here before and it worked for me perfectly! No beating ,,,,, prying or anything.

Just use caution and be safe. Jack-stands and wheel chocks are best. Plus you want the lug-nuts to be close enough to the drum to allow it to break free ,,,, but not come more than an inch or so out and damage the threads,

Hope this helps.

 

That sometimes works real well...


did the car sit long?

are they frozen up, will the wheel spin?

there should be little "die-punched" windows in the backing plate that you can punch out, but that will be a PIA to "back them off" cause the set up works like a one way ratchet the little geared wheel puts more tension on the brake shoes, you would have to reach in there and move the little "finger" that hold the gear from going "backwards" I'm not even sure you can do that...

If it is driven often you could try opening the bleeder on the back of the wheel cylinder, this may give you a little bit of play. and then just keep beating on the drum with a soft faced hammer, it will take a lot to get them off, give it a few good hits around the outside of the drum then start to hit it evenly from the back lip that sticks above the backing plate, hit it so that you keep it parallel with the shoes. You can try to "pry" them off but if you don't keep them straight they just bind more.


At my buddy’s garage we had one set on a 3/4 ton ford that was so froze on there that we had to mig four 3/4"-10 bolts to the drum and rig a fixture to use the porta-power to pop the drum off, it was a lot of work but we saved the dude from buying new drums and shoes...

 

I tried the off the ground and engine running but it would not come off. I looked all over the drum to find the window but I could not find anything,,I did run out of daylight so I will try again tomorrow..

Rick

 

maybe you mean what I mean but just to clarify...

the window would be on the backing plate, witch is behind the drum...just making sure you are looking the right place...

I've never seen a older GM without the windows, like I said they may need punched out yet... I know for a fact that my buddies 70 nova has the windows...