removing (seized) rear brakes?

I spent most of today trying to remove the drums off the rear brakes on my project car ('82 Golf C). Its the first time I've looked at them in detail and they are totally rusted up. After some feckling with a pry and a hammer I was able to get the drum rotating freely on the hub but I cannot get it to come off. It seems that the braking mechanism on the inside is hanging onto the drum.

I've tried looking through one of the wheel stud holes to find the adjuster wedge and have tried moving it up (I read somewhere that you moved it down to make it tighter so I applied the opposite, hope that was right). It didnt help.

These brakes are going to have to be replaced, as they seem to be quite knackered (and the amount of abuse they have had today cant have helped). I can now get one of the drums off enought to peer in the mechanism and the shoes are totally stuck to the drum.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to release it the brakes so I can get the drums off??

oh, btw, the rest of the braking system, except the handbrake cable (which is obviously not on), is totally removed.

Thanks!

If you're changing drums and shoes, then get in there with the WD40 and see if that helps !
Good luck with it,
Mark

Big hammer!!!!!

break the drums off  8O

could always go and buy another rear axle set-up form the scrappy, renew the brakes, clean it all up and then swap it over…………



Just a thought  :wink:

yeah, I've been talking to my mate and BIG HAMMER seems to be the way forward  :twisted: Followed by breaking, which could be followed by replacing the whole back cross member, depending on how much of a mess I make of it.

Borrowed my mates lump hammer and pry bar so hopefully may get a bit more progress in the morning!

Cheers!

Its not just hitting it with a big hammer, its how you do it.

The danger is, that you'll hit the rear of the drum, the shoes are seized against the drum and all that will happen is the springs which hold the shoes on, stretch then retract. Possibly the way to do it is to spray some WD40 into the drum, so that the shoes lose their grip on the drum; then to bolt some kind of bar using the wheelnut threads, so you can simultaneously hit it from behind and twist it off.

If you're replacing the drum, why not simply cut it with a cutting disc in a mini-grinder?

Sounds stupid but you did remove the castle nut from the centre of the drum didnt you?????? :dontknow:

Sounds stupid but you did remove the castle nut from the centre of the drum didnt you??????

Nice , i was going to post that but thought nooooo every body reads his Haynes manual first  8O   Good idea though Rob .

Cheers………..

robdcfc1 said

Sounds stupid but you did remove the castle nut from the centre of the drum didnt you?????? :dontknow:

The what nut??

 :mrgreen:

Yeah of course I did, the innards are off the stub axle up to and including the bearings.

I'd like to try and avoid cutting into it as I'd like to put the drum and wheel back on after. I need to take the brakes out as they keep seizing and make it bloomin hard to push it out the garage, which I'll need to do from time to time for access.

What about grinding the heaeds off the shoe retainers that stick out the back and getting new pins after?

Unbolt master cylinder,

From what you said yesterday the shoe retaining pins are already gone..

And you may find a bolt holding the bottom retaining plate in place.

With that lot off it should all come out in one lump..

TT

It shouldn't be too hard!

You did the right thing by moving the wedge upwards. It should go up quite a long way.

If you've ground off the shoe retaining pins on the back plate of if they've just rusted apart through age then this might be your roblem as when you rty and remove the drum the shoes will probably get pulled out at an angle and lock the drum up. You could have a look through the inspection hole in the back plate to see if there's much gap between the drum and shoes. You may even be able to lever the shoe you can see away from the drum a bit to help things.

Could it be that even though the handbrake is off its not off enough to clear the lip on the drum which occurs from wear? You could slacken the handbrake cables off as it might help. Slackening the cables really helps when you need to reattach the shoes to the cables. You should adjust the handbrake afterwards anyway.

job done   Seems I wasn't been liberal enough with the WD40, shed loads of lubrication and application of a pry bar I was able to ease the drum past the shoes, though they didnt want to let go. The inside of the drum and the whole mechanism was totally rusty.

Now with the brake mechanism removed the car rolls around lovelly, was able to push it back in the garage no problems (I had to use my other car to tow it out in the first place)

Thanks for all your help & suggestions.

I just had a look at taking the front calipers off…   They are now soaking in WD40 to be tried another day. Think I may need to apply some heat to those.

I put WD40 on the fronts calipers when we took the wings off…

A FBH should see the disks off…….


TT