Brake drum puller?

[dhbfaster]

Anyone have a brake drum puller I can borrow?
I had my old drums for the rear axle powder coated and now it seems like they are warped.:doh::doh::NERVOUS::(
So one of them looks pretty bad (although not really noticeable until installed) and it's dragging in a spot when it rotates. It seems to be tightly held on now...and I'm worried I'm going to bend something if I try any harder to get it back off. Hoping not to buy this tool I hope I don't have to use again.

[redfalken]

Bummer! I've always just pulled them off by hand. I was helping a friend out by doing a brake job once on their `63 and the pads had fallen apart inside the drum and were really jammed up. Took about 30 minutes to get one side off. I just tapped around the edge from behind and slowly worked it loose. Make sure your parking brake cable is slack or even unhook it up by the tranny.

You'll have to bleed the brakes but you could try opening the bleeder and maybe the pads would loosen up a little. I've never tried that so maybe someone will chime in if that's not a good idea for some reason.

[Jeff W]

I have never used one. Usually if you reach in through the back slot you can loosen the adjuster all the way and the drum comes right off. If they were used drums you may have a ridge that the shoe is catching on.

[dhbfaster]

Clarification...the axle is not on the car (just rebuilt). No brake fluid yet or pressure on the shoes. New shoes..the axles rotate, but there's a high spot where they rub- mostly one side. Hard to describe..maybe I can post some pics tomorrow, but when you turn it, the drum isn't even all the way around when you see it against the back plate.

Ok...got some pics with my iPad- attached. When you rotate the drum you can see there is about a 1/16 difference from high point to low point. More obvious when you see it rotate. So, I was going to just give up and buy some new ones...but these don't come off. I've already done some reasonably hard tapping around it. The paint seems to have glued it on...but it's only been on there about a week.

[Jeff W]

As long as you are going to buy new drums anyway... maybe more than gentle hammering would work. I don't think you are going to bend an axle or anything. Just don't hit your shiny backing plates. Work your way around.

[dhbfaster]

So I went right out there after reading Jeffs note, picked up a hammer, put the end of the wood handle on a spot aligned with a hole that seemed to be in a tiny bit more than the others and gave that hammer a whap with another one.... Boom, the drum came right off. :ROTFLMAO:

Unfortunately the other side didn't work like that. I sprayed wd40 on the studs and center hole...still stuck, but gave up on that side for today.:bicker:

I also took the drum I swore yesterday had to be warped (I measured it!) and tried to measure it while it is unmonted...if it's not perfectly round, I sure can't tell, and it seems perfectly flat on the workbench too. So I have no idea why it was wobbling like it was. Maybe I'll look for paint buildup tomorrow and clean up all the holes a bit to see if that could be pushing it to one side.

I also put a dial indicator on the axle flange to measure the wobble...wow, look at that needle move. A whopping .017" of variation. I don't think in inches too well so I put that on the caliper...that's practically nothing. I could barely see it. :confused:

Seems like I just need to get all this stuff back on torque it up and drive this thing and get it to work in?? Disc brakes really are so much easier.

[Luva65wagon]

Don,

Powder coating can be pretty thick, so make sure the surface area where it meets the axle flange is to bare-ish metal and the hole that goes over the axle riser is clear of coating. These are key mating surfaces. You may also want to have a local machine shop mount the drums and check for true. If they are warped a brake lathe with show it, and maybe they are fine and it is all powder coat thickness.

[dhbfaster]

Very good point Roger. Paint on the top post the top end of the shoes could be adding to the situation too. I'll get back into it this weekend- thanks.

[dhbfaster]

Finally got this one figured out... took a torch to the drum around the holes and gave it a bang and it popped. Scrapped the paint off all the holes, and worked the parking brake a few times and everything seems just right- no wobbles (knock on wood.) This axle is finally ready to go back on the car. :rocker: