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Sat Oct 11, 2025 2:56 pm

Hi folks, last time I couldn't get my rear drums off. I loosened the nuts a few turns and went for a drive around the block. They then came off easily.
This time I have my car up on trestles because I've been working on the front brakes now I can't go for a drive. I was wondering if I could use a puller to pull the drum off but might I damage anything by pushing the axle inwards, has the central point that the puller will push against?

Or am I just overthinking as usual?

Cheers

Sat Oct 11, 2025 3:19 pm

As little push with a puller won’t hurt anything just to get the axle unstuck from the drum splines, just don’t keep turning the screw and push the axle in really deep. Once it’s moving make sure the drum is moving outwards on the shoes, not pushing the axle in.

Edit to correct stupid predictive text messing with my words.

Sat Oct 11, 2025 3:36 pm

I replied to a similar issue in another thread.

One thing that has worked for me with stubborn drums is to leave wheel nuts attached and then remove the axle nuts/cotter pins etc and use the tyre as extra leverage to remove the drums. You can use a heavy hammer against the tyres to “persuade” if necessary.

Just be careful if the car is on axle stands and jacks that the car may slip sideways.

Sat Oct 11, 2025 4:02 pm

Rear end in the air, loosen the big nut and the wheel bolts. Sit on your butt and use the wheel as a pulling hammer. Side note, scetch if it falls off the jack/jacks.

Sat Oct 11, 2025 4:04 pm

Did you turn the brake adjusters all the way in so any lip on the brake drum won't catch??? Parking brake completely released? Bleed off a little fluid at the wheel cylinders?

Sat Oct 11, 2025 7:46 pm

What Cusser said.

Tim

Sun Oct 12, 2025 6:17 am

If the drum is moving on the axle shaft but getting stuck on the brake shoes because the adjusters are frozen… you can scrape the road muck off the inner facing side of the backing plate and locate the flat heads of the two retaining pins (you get new ones in the brake hardware kit). With a flat head screwdriver and a pair of diagonal cutters lift the head up and slide the cutter in so you can clip the head off the two pins. They are made of hollow aluminum so cut easily. This frees the brake shoes from the backing plate. Now when you pull out on the drum it will cause the shoes to fold in. This only works if the drum is hung up on the shoes.

Sun Oct 12, 2025 8:33 am

ashman40 wrote: If the drum is moving on the axle shaft but getting stuck on the brake shoes because the adjusters are frozen… you can scrape the road muck off the inner facing side of the backing plate and locate the flat heads of the two retaining pins (you get new ones in the brake hardware kit). With a flat head screwdriver and a pair of diagonal cutters lift the head up and slide the cutter in so you can clip the head off the two pins. They are made of hollow aluminum so cut easily. This frees the brake shoes from the backing plate. Now when you pull out on the drum it will cause the shoes to fold in. This only works if the drum is hung up on the shoes.
Great advice, Ashman !

Folks here in Arizona rarely have to deal with seized adjusters....

Mon Oct 13, 2025 12:27 am

Hi guys,

Thanks for the input,

Drum turns freely and brakes backed off. I'll try the puller, And maybe a bit of heat before that.

Cheers.

Sat Nov 01, 2025 5:39 am

There She goes, cut and welded up a very simple puller last night that just uses the wheel nut itself. Didn't take a lot of pressure,, But was consistent pressure almost all the way off

As you will see, the South African 71 has about 3/4 of an inch more spline than 71s from elsewhere in the world.

Probably doesn't help getting it off....

Sat Nov 01, 2025 6:40 am

Nice job on that puller. When I have had trouble getting stuck drums off I have always used a hammer around the inside edge of the drum to get them to start moving without damaging them. (I am sure the naysayers will jump in here with comments) On cars that have sat for a long time that were really stubborn I have had to unbolt the wheel cylinder, and cut or pull out the pin that secures the shoes from the backing plate. Good luck.

Tue Nov 04, 2025 8:23 am

Check out these cool long spline rear brake drums for my RSA 1971.

New ones are out just for checking. These are quite rare, so when I stumbled across a set I picked them up and they should last the life of the car now. Haha

Tue Nov 04, 2025 3:17 pm

Wow they are interesting. Never seen that before.

The concave section looks bigger than the backing plate? I wonder if they did that to try and keep dust out of the brake mechanism? I assume that SA beetles may have seen a bit more off bitumen roads like in Australia and they modified the drums to cope.

A picture of the inside would have been interesting.