just sold our 35 Dodge Brothers Pick up ( was my wife's dads & could never really be my truck... hated to see it go, but it was for the best ) a couple of those brakes were really stuck... no amount of dragging it around on the gravel seemed to want to break them loose... so we dragged it onto the trailer, with a couple still locked up... Now I'm working on my truck project, & it's been sitting in the pasture for longer than the Dodge had sat in the shed... last night I got one side of the front brakes free, pulled the drum, by pulling the bearing, so it would have more wiggle room, rapped around the drum with a light hammer, & then used a heavier one from the back side & got it to start... after the drum came out enough to get some penitrating oil shot in there, I gave it a shot & a couple more taps & I got that one free... I had started on the drivers side, & it seemed a bit more stuborn, so I switched to the passenger, which I got off... the rears won't be a problem, since I'm going to sell the stock axle, but since there is no bearing to remove I'm guessing a big gear puller & some light rapping with a hammer would be the easiest... just curious how you guys remove or free up those hopelessly stuck brakes ??? BTW... talked to the guy that bought the Dodge, ( he is a local builder that builds old cars for others ) & he was putting a big pipe wrench on the hubs... I didn't want to mar up the hubs with the teeth of a big pipe wrench, & doubted that would be much gain over dragging the truck ???
I have done this sooooooo many times. LOL It depends on if you want to save the drum or not. I have used the small hammer than moved up to a bigger hammer rapping around on the drum. I have also used the heat wrench to heat up the out side of the drum then rap with the hammer. as a last resort I have used the heat wrench and either cut a small hole in the backing plate so you can get the cutting torch tip in (or if you are lucky or good) you can get it in the adjuster hole and cut the adjusted in two. This usally works but be carefull as I have set all kinds of things ablaze with the heat wrench. LOL
12 pound sledge on the drum, get its attention if it dont come loose in 2 whacks time for torch adjustment previously mentioned
Thanks for the tips... In my situation, both the Dodge & my truck project have the eccentric manual adjusters... I don't think there is a rod to cut like the adjuster wheel type ??? BTW... on the one I got off last night, the shoes looked new... I'd guess if the shoes are new, when the vehical sat for years, the tolorances would be tighter, & thus a tighter stick... I know on the Dodge truck, my FIL had restored it parade ready, like 20 ish years ago, & after he died, my wife & her sister couldn't part with it & it sat in a dirt floor machine shed for 15-20 years... I'm sure the shoes were also new at the time... what they look like after the buyer finally gets them freed up is anyones guess... I was suprised at how good the insides looked on mine, on the one I got off...
Rock the car back and forward while hitting on the wheel centre - not to hard - with a heavy hammer. In my salvage yard days we used a big lead hammer. It's no good towing the car forward that only make the shoes wrap more tightly to the drums.
Here's what I learned from the HAMB. Jack the car up, remove the wheel and get the garden hose propped up to just trickle water into the drum. Let it run a while then start try and move the drum using a pry bar. It should start moving back & forth a little more each time. You should see a bunch of crap being flushed out. It took me a few hours for one stubborn wheel, but it's worked for me a bunch of times. J.
I have succesfully used the following approach a few times. If it's a front, I remove the spindle nut and outer bearing first. Then I take a chisel and knock off the heads of the little pins that retain the shoes to the backing plate. I remove the bolts that hold the wheel cylinder to the backing plate. I then pry the drum outward from the backing plate. On a particularly stubborn case recently, I resorted to drilling a couple 1/4 holes (180* apart) in the 'web' of the drum, just inboard of the friction surface and used a drift (punch) to drive the shoe toward the backing plate as I pried the drum outward. Liberal use of WD40 or water or ??? seems to help too. Ray
drag it down the road behind a big truck with all 4 tires singing and skidding...dam boy dont you know anything?
I read about a trick using water to free up engines that had been sitting and rusted the pistons stuck in the bores. ( that works... I've tried it, a couple of times on several engines.) So when I got a set of spindles of a O/T car with very rare finned aluminum drums on it that were rusted stuck, I did not want to start wailing on it with a hammer. I submerged the whole spindle with the drums on it in water, and left them there for a couple of days. Worked out really nice...
paved road is 3/4 of a mile of gravel down the road... probably have flat spots before I hit the tar... BTW, I tried dragging the 'ol Dodge both forward & backwards in the driveway... got 2 of them broke loose... sold it as is, with 2 still stuck
Drums rust into the shoes. Depending on how bad it is you may be able to free it or you may have to actually cut the drum apart to free it up.
I would try the water trick, but stay away from oil of any kind. I have had brake shoes swell from getting oil soaked and well, getting them loose then is harder than hell.
water did the trick on my toughest so far... one side front I was able to remove pretty easily the other... um... it was a bear... I had beat on it, until I had started to mushroom the flange in a couple spots... I pounded out one lug stud & shot water into the drum... many times... I got it to brake loose... don't know why there was so much difference between the 2, but there was a couple inches of ( now ) mud in the bottom of the drum, all the insides were highly corroded, while the other side looked pretty good ??? anyway... I'd think the drivers side one, was one of the toughest, & while the flange is pretty banged up, I could probably use the drum if I needed... ( but, I'm using different brakes anyway )
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