Hey guys I've got a 1961 dodge dart in my shop. For the life of me I cant get the rear drums off!!! Is there something I'm missing. I've heated them up, sledge hammer, drum puller that busted you name it I did it! Please any help would be great!!!!!!!
from a early mopar and stude guy....keep banging and swearing....but I had to cut a drum off once down to the spindle....
Tapered spline rear axle. You need a proper heavy duty drum puller. The common ones ( tool loaner parts store ones ) won't cut it. Good luck. Don't cut stuff up!
Three-legged hub puller which bolts on with the lugs and has the hammerable crossbar to turn the release screw is the ticket for all tapered/keyed axle/hub removals.
They're a bugger for sure. I just pulled a set off my lady's '55 Coronet. I used an old school drum puller (70's vintage Snap-on), an impact wrench to tighten the drum puller, a propane torch, and a sledge. I'm told, however, that a ball pean is better than a sledge because its not so much about the force of the impact, its more about the shock, so the smaller ball pean at higher velocity works better. At any rate, I ran the drum puller down until my impact wrench had given me just about all it would give, then heated the taper until the grease started to boil out (nothing was glowing, don't want to de-temper the axles). Then I rang its bell with the sledge. First one was hard because I didn't know how much it would take, second one actually was pretty easy, I just followed the steps I figured out on the first one.
I did one of these by making a drum puller from an old rim. Heres the steps: Take old rim and cut away everything but a couple of inches past the bolt circle. Set it flat on a work bench. The side facing down is the side that touches the drum when it is attached. Now cut four four sticks of metal about a foot long. I used 1/4" solid bar stock. Stand these sticks up around the edge of the newly trimmed rim and weld these sticks onto the rim. Now cut a piece of plate steel (I used 1/4" thick plate) about the same size as the rim you cut up. Place this flat on top of the four sticks and weld the plate to the sticks. Now bolt it onto the rear end, Place a bottle jack flat on the plate steel so when it expands it presses on the center hub that protrudes from the middle of the drum and jack it up. WEAR EAR PLUGS STAND OUT OF THE WAY WHEN IT LETS GO THE FORCE IS LARGE AND LOUD! Mine came off easily this way. Hope this helps. Greg
You could try what's shown in this link. I haven't tried it yet but I'll be giving it a shot soon. http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=541848 Be sure to post results if you get anything to work.
Use the drum puller as suggested with the hammerhead. Bolt it up, take the sledge and wack away till it don't go any farther. Then take the sledge and hit the center of the hammerhead (where the throughbolt is) with a swift swing. This usually works. I had done everything in my power to get the right rear drum off my Chrysler and had just about given up and for the fun of it hit the middle of the hammerhead and to my surprise the drum came off. Now the removal of the axle is another story. Even worse, but persistence pays off.
when you do get the proper smack it with a hammer hub puller be sure to leave the nut on a few turns. you'll smack it a couple times then the hub/drum will pop off all of the sudden, don't want that sucker falling on your big toe, the nut keeps it on the axle after the tension is gone. I tried to remove my drum with the incorrect puller... all I did was bend the drum. ended up swapping the whole rear end for a later one with normal axles and brakes you can still get parts for.
Be careful, when I pulled the same set up off my 58 Coronet, went through the same crap $#@#$ I had a puller slip off under pressure and put a 1" deep dent in my Camaro 4' away. I made a crude puller jig that bolted up to the drum,a 2" piece of 2" pipe welded to it , then another round plat welded to that with a hole in the center.The 3 leged puller grabbed the 2nd ring and pushed through the hole, Think large thread spool ??
Nice homemade tool. I had to make one similar to yours to get the damn axle and bearings out, obviously after I fought the damn drum and puller. Used a breaker bar with a long pipe to break the damn axle loose. How I did this without busting anything is anyone's guess. Man I don't look forward to having to remove drums and axles on my Willys AeroEagle and Hudson Superjet. Both are just like the damn Chrysler.