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how do you free up a rusted on drum ?

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beaulieu

beaulieu

Jedi Warrior
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Hi

I am working on another car

it sat in the dirt for years and the rear drums are stuck ,

any ideas how to free them ?

I un-adjusted the brakes
I have tried spraying the shoes,
hitting the shoes with a chisel thru the inspection holes
hitting the drums with a hammer
hitting the backing plates with a hammer

I am just hoping to free the lining from being stuck on the brake drum without having to try and break off the drum with a BIG hammer


Thanks for your ideas

Beaulieu
 
BFH, buddy, BFH....
 
Freeing up rusted-on brake drums is one of the most perplexing tasks in restoration, right next to freeing up rusted-in pistons. The front brake drums of my 1951 Jag sedan had been taken off the car by the previous owner and left outside for 25 years. They were full of rust, dirt, leaves and a couple of mud dauber nests. I started with a pressure washer to clean out the debris inside the drums. After backing off the brake shoe adjusters, I put them in my parts cleaning tank and left them there for a month. When I pulled them out, they were still stuck. Every evening for the next week, I hammered the heck out of the drums with a large rubber mallet. Finally, one of them let go and I was able to rotate the drum ever so slightly. Back to the pressure washer. More debris came out. This time, I poured in liquid soap, the kind used for hand washing dishes. The drum rotated a little more and finally came free. The other drum was a little tougher but eventually, it came loose. After I got them apart, I discovered the previous owner had rebuilt the brakes and that the shoes and drums were unused.

Whatever technique you use, patience has to be the main part of it. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the idea,,,,

thinking out of the box , what if you get an electric skillet plate (no exposed hot wires) and sit the drum on top of it,
it would heat the drum up slowly but without using a propane torch.....

Beaulieu
 
some thoughts:

is the hub hanging on the shoes, or is the drum stuck on the hub?

If the shoes are hanging on the drum, you could unbolt the wheel cylinder, adjuster mechanism (if its removable) from the back side of the backing plate, and grind off the heads of the retaining pins? The idea is to free the shoes inside of the drum.

if the drum is stuck to the hub:

1) bfh blows alternating left-right, top-bottom of the outermost edge (front face) of the drum (for leverage) until it starts to wiggle. Lots of penetrating lube. Be brutal. I use a 2-lb dead blow hammer wielded with extreme prejudice. Works 95% of the time.

2) drum puller. I hate to use 'em, but sometimes they work.

3) you can try removing the wheel studs - hammer 'em out or cut 'em off..... (if they're the press-in type)
 
My drums were stuck when I initially got the car. They were rusted solid to the hub, so for a few days I would shoot penetrating oil into the studs, and slowly tap around the edge of the drum. It was tedious, dirty, boring and frustrating, but eventually I got it loose.
 
thanks guys , they are still stuck,

I am mostly interested now in getting it to roll,
it seems the shoes are stuck to the drum

yes the drum is also stuck to the hub , but thats a later job

I have beeb spraying it and banging it with a hammer,

I also got the space heater out and heated it for 30 minutes,
that got it pretty hot but its still stuck,

anyway I am still working on it

Beaulieu
 
just out of curiousity, what kind of vehicle are you working on?

and, although the e-brake comment was enough to make me shoot coffee through my nose, is it possible that the parking brake cable was engaged and is now stuck?
 
its a Fiat 600.....
 
Here's a trick I used on a TR3 with frozen rear shoes:
Undo the slave cylinder and the brake adjuster from the backing plate. Now when you pull the drum, the shoes are free to come off with it, adjuster, cylinder and all. They are a WHOLE lot easier to get out of the drum that way and they are no longer the reason that the drum won't come off. Being frozen to the hub is another matter...
 
Any update?
 
sorry no update ,

I went to Europe for a couple weeks ,

I will try and play with it later this week,,,,
 
I bought a VW Thing once, and the front drums were rusted solid. The tow truck driver that picked it up for me hooked up his cable, put some good tension on the car,(front suspension squatted because the wheels woulden't turn) then, while holding a wood block agenst the wheel, gave the front wheels a few good raps with a good sized hammer. they broke free fairly quickly.
I would suggest to go ahead and bang the drums loose with a BFH. There's not a lot of metal to begin with to machine off to clean those drums up if they're all rusty and pitted, so you're probably looking at new drums anyway, and the shoes should not be reused if they're in a state like that. Ya might as well bang 'em off, remove the shoes, and get it to roll. Once you get it home you can deal with the details.
 
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