I am planning to inspect my rear brakes this weekend, as I suspect there might be a problem back there. I tried briefly to get one rear drum off a few months ago when I replaced the front brakes, but it was being held in place somehow and I didn't feel like messing with it at the time. Before I get into it this Saturday, do you suppose it's just the shoes getting caught on a ridge in the drum, or is there some kind of sneaky pin or clip that holds this drum in place?
More than likely just the shoes caught. You can use a hammer with a medium amount of effort, and strike the sides of the drum to free them up. Sometimes it only takes a few times, sometimes alot.
I don't suppose you had the parking brake on by any chance??? ;)
If I recall correctly on my 1994 with rear drums, the style is different than others I encountered. That is, on some vehicles I have owned, the drum was NOT a part of the bearing assembly, so when the wheel was removed, you could simply slide the drum off to gain access to the brake mechanism.
This was NOT the case on my GC. The bearings are actually part of the drum assembly. As such, there should be a dust cap over the outer bearing. Remove the dust cap, then the cotter pin, and pin back the hex nut. As you spin back the hex nut, you will unload the bearings, and you should notice the drum fall downward slightly.
All you have to do is remove the nut completely and then the drum should slide off. The outer bearing was held in by the nut and a washer. The inner bearing was held in place by a bearing retaining seal.
I had to do this because I needed to re-pack my rear wheel bearings. But I did take the opportunity to clean, inspect and adjust my rear brakes at the same time. :)
The 1999 model has a separate drum that goes on over the hub assembly. I've had the older style drums off lots of times, but I've never had to do anything to this one yet. And the parking brake was off.
Drum brakes have self adjusters. If it will not come off you will need to back off self adjuster. You will need a wire or curver object to reach in there and push the adjuster lever back so you can spin the adjuster wheel back to losen it up. Takes a little practice and a repair manual may help. Good luck. MT
This is FWD. Thus, I'd expect that you're probably trying to take the wheel bearing off without removing the nut. Take the hub cap off (no, not the wheel cover) and see if the the drum is riveted to the bearing hub.
:werd.. there should be an oval rubber plug on the backing plate, usually near the metal brake line going to the wheel cylinder... [image:
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see *#7* ? the thing right in the middle is the star-wheel adjuster... dunno which way you'll haveta go 50:50 in turning it up or down...
*# 12* is what keeps the shoes adjusted properly to the drums & that's what's keeping your drum "stuck"... gotta lift this up & turn that wheel w/ another screwdriver in some cases...
you'll see a ridge on the inner part of the drum when you finally remove it... adviseable to go have them resurfaced when removed...
-edit: ha, ive found it!- all courtesy to autozone free online repair manual!
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rubber plug
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using a special brake tool or flathead screwdriver & a few expletives should do it!
Newman's case is different since he didn't have the sealed hub-bearing design...
wright z28's testimony: yeap, my sis' 97 chevy cavalier didn't come w/ that rubber plug in the back & had to bring out a big rubber mallet, said a few expletives & bang it loose to take the drum off; what were u thinking GM?!?!
Per my other post, the drum comes off without removing the bearing assembly. Concensus seems to be that there is no hidden attachment hardware on this drum. Thanks so much.
My nephew was trying to get the drum off a Corolla and I told him to loosen the adjuster nut. It didn't help, so as a last resort I asked him for an exact account of everything he had done to get ready for the job. His list included setting the parking brake. Oops.
I'm sure this one will come right off as soon as I loosen the adjuster. I was just making sure that there wasn't some tricky clip or retaining pin in there somewhere.
If it still doesn't come off, try looking for a threaded hole in the drum near the center. The tech manual for my 2002 Caravan specifies the size of metric bolt that should be screwed into the drum to pop the drum off of the hub. While the drum IS separate from the hub, the center hole of the drum is a friction fit onto the hub. With a bit of rust and crud, they seem to freeze into place.
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