The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Rear Brakes Stuck on '63 6300

The brakes on my 6300 are completely shot, they have been since I bought it. I have been trying to remove the passenger rear brake drum but I have been having no luck. So far I have; removed the wheels and drum retaining screws, kroiled and backed off the adjusters as far as they go, snapped a shoe retaining bolt head off, and bent the backing plate at the 5 o'clock position. It is apparent the shoes are stuck behind a groove in the drum, but I can't seem to get it past.

Is there a secret to getting these off? The rear end I think is an Eaton 10 bolt with electric shift.

Hy Casey_58, If the pressure is truly off the shoes, the adjusters are backed off, then the linings may be rusted to the drums. Take a long pry bar and wedge it between the hub and a wheel stud or two, under the end of the bar place a hydraulic jack and pump it up to put some tension on the bar, now strike the brake drum with a sledge hammer as though you are trying to drive it onto the hub. The tension on the bar may help to break the drum free, if it does break free be prepared for a lot of noise as the bar hits the floor, good luck

The drums spin, they are not seized, the issue is there is a lip on the drum behind the liners, so if I pull on the drum, the lip catches and it all stops. With my adjusters back, and the shoes retracted it should slide off, but it isn't. I may have some peeling shoes that are catching. I know with smaller trucks you can get a 2 or 3 jaw puller and just rip off the drum, but this is a little bigger than that.

Is the drum releasing from the hub?

I had a “furd” that the rear drums would not release from the hubs unless I used a little bit of heat on the drums. Using an O/A torch, I would start heating the outside of the drum to get the drum to start expanding first, then I concentrated the heat on the inner portion of the drum that contacts the hub. If you start the heat on the inner portion of the drum, the drum expands inward making it even tighter. When you start the heat on the outside, it starts expanding outward, then you slowly move the heat inward till you reach the hub. This method allows the center to expand. You don’t need a lot of heat. A few hundred degrees should be enough.

Not familiar with the big truck brakes but some things to check if they apply. If the parking brake is part of the rear brakes make sure the cable is retracted all the way, that can sometimes spread things out and make it difficult to get apart. If the shoe retainers have pins that go through the backing plate sometimes those need to cut off to get things apart.

I had this problem last week. My adjusters were completely rusted and frozen. I could get the drums to lift off of the hubs about 1/4" but the wear lip on the drum was keeping it from pulling off of the shoes. I had to use an air chisel to hammer on the adjusters until the ears broke off of one side. Then the bottom of the shoes could move towards each other and the drum slid off.

Do you have the 12" x 2" brakes?

Nah, Mine are the 16" x 4". I got one side off by using a 2x4 frame, 2 chains, a 2 jaw puller's hooks, and a screw jack taken from a mid 90s f150. I got enough pulling force to just drag the drum over the brakes. I have the other side partially done, but I need to back the adjusters, apparently the little I can do with them makes all the difference