Thread: Brake Drum Removal

Originally Posted by geodon

I bought a length of 3/8th UNC (whitworth) all-thread & made 3x150mm long all thread set screws & screwed them into the mounting holes. They went about 100mm in so I reasoned they must be bearing down on the brake backing plate.

The undamaged drum came off . When I observed what was happening with my setscrews without the drum in situ, they did indeed go all the way to the backing plate.

Too easy. Now for the other one!

Again they went about 100mm in. And locked up. I added a a length of water pipe over the socket arm to increase leverage and......they snapped like twigs!

I've ordered another 3/8 W all-thread but this time in high tensile. I'll try again Wednesday

I tried to remove the plumbing & mounts on the top wheel cylinder but that seemed to expand the shoes & lock up the drum.

If the the high tensile route doesn'tr work I will look at making a gear puller that attaches via the drum fixing screws & pushes down on the axle mid point.

Comments?

You need to be screwing the threaded rod into the tapped hole in the drum, not the mounting holes - they provide no pressure on the drum itself. I suspect you are about at the stage of cutting or breaking up the drum to remove it and ordering a new pair of drums!

John

Thnx John!

Thats why the good drum came off. I used the threaded hole plus 2 mounts.

As my teenage daughters would often say to me : "Well DERRRR, Dad!"

I was blinded by past VW experience where the wheel bolts screw into the drums so the threads in the drums can be used to push.
But your pointing out my stupidity gave me an Idea: If I can weld 5/16W nuts onto the face of the drum, I CAN then push the drum off. The smaller bolts go straight thru the 3/8 threaded holes with only light contact. I can put a tap thru the drum mounts to clean them up later.

Which begs the question why didn't it work on the damaged drum?? On closer inspection, I saw one of the drum mounts is blanked off.
The penny drops!
The damaged drum has been put on without lining up the mounting screw holes. The push-off thread has lined up with a mounting hole! No wonder it has been clouted to attempt to get it off!

BTW at $75 each, I have already ordered new front drums. Considering the cost & problems of skimming, that's a bargain!

Well that caps off a day replete with stupidity. Today I accidentally discovered my Grey Fergy has been hard to start & running too rich not due to carb issues but because the air filter was blocked.

DERRR!

If the problem is that the pushoff hole is lined up with a mounting hole, try this idea.

Cut a short section of your rod and slot it to make a screw in plug to block the hole in the hub flange. Screw it in, making sure it goes below the drum, with some loktite to make sure it stays there. After a couple of hours, then screw in your pushoff screw, with a bit of grease on the tip.

You may have trouble welding nuts onto the drum - it is cast iron.

John

John is right about the welding, unless you buy some expensive rods such as Weldall.

Cheaper to drill and break the drum; once the periphery is free of the shoes the centre should come off with a few taps from the hammer,

Cheers Charlie

Success!

I welded some 5/16 nuts to some scrap angle then made 150mm pusher bolts with 5/16 all-thread rod. This made it easier to weld to the drum & gave me a chance to clean up trhe thread distortion in the nuts which occurs when you weld them and also made it easier to clean up the drum afterwards altho I will scrap them both.

Welding to the drums wasn't that easy but I kept the spots wide & deep. even so, the lower unit let go & I had to re-weld it on. That was where it was sticking. When it came out, the lower push bolt looked a bit like a banana!

The only aftermath was a slightly mangled drum mount thread which cleaned up perfectly with a 3/8 tap.


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If you try this yourself, make the pushers about 175mm. I ran out of thread & had to tap it the rest of the way.

FWIW - the screws to retain the brake drums are unnecessary. I removed mine in ~1995 and have never had an issue.

Why not just use a three legged puller on the drum, pushing on a block across the centre of the hub?

Aaron.

Originally Posted by geodon

Success!

I welded some 5/16 nuts to some scrap angle then made 150mm pusher bolts with 5/16 all-thread rod. This made it easier to weld to the drum & gave me a chance to clean up trhe thread distortion in the nuts which occurs when you weld them and also made it easier to clean up the drum afterwards altho I will scrap them both.
<snip>.

Glad to hear that the welded drums are headed for the scrap bin!

I hope you will also be applying some destructive forces to them so that no-one else ever attempt to use them?

Would not be a pretty sight when a drum fractures then shatters along the welding stress lines.