Bolt that presses the brake drum off...

[Friday88]

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but I found that the bolts that fasten the brake lines to the rear axle housing are the correct size for the threaded hole in the brake drums.

makes removing a stubborn drum pretty simple.

 

[alumarine]

Good to know!

 

[pluton]

Good to know!

I shall burn this factoid into my mental SSD for future use, even though I normally carry a drum removal bolt.

 

[mtbtim]

The bolts are a M8 x 1.25 pitch. While the bolt removal truck does work, it wouldn't be my 1st technique to remove the drums. The first technique is pounding on it will a rubber or plastic mallet to loosen it up. If it still doesn't come off, then I go through the access hatch on the backing plate and back off the auto-adjuster a lot to make sure the shoes aren't pressing hard against the brake drum and then pound some more with the mallet. If the drum is still fighting me, as a LAST resort, I'll use the bolt trick. The reason why I recommend using the bolts as a last resort is because you could end up dragging the shoes with the drum and start cranking on all you brake hardware. Once that happens, things can get really jammed up and now you can't even try backing off the auto-adjuster. You're forced to keep driving with the bolts and hope you don't destroy your brake hardware or worse yet, have to break out the Big F@cking Hammer and bust the drum off.