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Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:59 am

Hi there everyone!

I'm trying to pull the drums off of my front end. System was operable with no frozen shoes, etc. I pulled the dust cover, removed the spindle nut and bearing and then backed off the shoes. The drum now feels loose and will wobble to the point where I can see the shoes exposed, depending on how I rocked the drum.

Looking at my Bentley manual, I see they mention special tool vw 202 in conjunction with the hooks and bolt plate for the drum, but I can't see any mention of any tool like this when searching the samba. It seems others are just pulling the drum free when they remove the outer bearing.

I'm concerned that I'll damage something(all the parts are close to new), so don't want to just start framming on things in the hopes that it will pop off.

Could someone give me a pointer on how to remove the drum as well as reassembly? The manual states that it's the reverse of removal, and since I can't figure out how to remove it, it's safe to assume that I'm going to have an issue with replacement :)

Thanks for your time!

Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:58 am

All the puller is going to do is ease the drum off along the spindle, so you could do the same thing by putting a drift against the outside edge of the drum from the inside, and tapping it with a hammer all around the back of the drum. Once you get past whatever little thing is holding it onto the spindle, it should come off no trouble.

Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:21 pm

Do I need to try to keep from rocking it too much while hitting it? I don't want to damage the inner bearing and it seems like that might do it. The drum feels like it's ready to fall off the spindle it's so loose, there's just something keeping it on the spindle.

Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:44 pm

Front inner bearings on link pin spindles are a very tight fit. With even the slightest cocking they can stick onto the spindles. Push it back on and try to tease it off gently, but in the worst case, you may need a puller, that is why they show one being used in the Bentley. Pulling it off straight and even won't hurt anything, hitting it with a big hammer may damage the drum.

Not sure why you couldn't find any info here, I put "brake drum puller" in the search box at the top left of this forum title page and got these...
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?search_keywords=brake+drum+puller&search_forum=2

To give you an idea of what a generic one looks like, put "brake drum puller" in a Google search and got these...
https://www.google.com/search?q=brake+drum+puller&...5#imgdii=_

You may be able to fabricate something, or rent or borrow one from a local auto parts store.

Try putting the wheel back on and use that to give you a better grip, but be careful not to topple the car off the stands.

Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:12 pm

The only thing holding your front drum on is the grease seal on the back of the drum. Get someone with bigger muscles to yank it off then work on removing the inner bearing that is probably stuck to the spindle. I once had a really frozen one I had to use a cut off wheel on and split it with a chisel. Good luck!!

Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:19 pm

61SNRF wrote: Try putting the wheel back on and use that to give you a better grip, but be careful not to topple the car off the stands.

X2
This gives you both leverage and a better alignment before you pull hard.

Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:10 pm

KTPhil wrote: 61SNRF wrote: Try putting the wheel back on and use that to give you a better grip, but be careful not to topple the car off the stands.

X2
This gives you both leverage and a better alignment before you pull hard.

Just do not yank too hard or you will give yourself a bloody nose. It happened to me when I was having the same issue. At least it was a rubber tire whacking me in the face and not a cast iron drum.