The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Removing frozen front brake drums

I've pulled the front end on my 1940 1/2 ton.

The brake drums are frozen on.

Any advice on getting them off?

I'm thinking of cutting through the drums and then removing the brakes.

Have you tried backing the brake shoes off? Pop the little covers off. Back off the adjustment wheels..if you can....a few whacks with a BFH to get the rust moving around...soak with stuff like PB blaster...leave it soak for a couple of hours, work on the other end of the truck...repeat....Unless they are one solid ball of rust, they should come off....I would not cut the drums quite yet...both my trucks had the same problem...the drums came off all 4 corners...both trucks....

Do the wheels turn ? If so, why not undo the wheel bearings and pull the hub and drum off as one. If there is a ridge that interferes, you can attach a chain to two or three studs and use a heavy bar to yank it free. If the drums are reuseable and you need to have them machined, they will want them mounted on the hubs, to turn them.

b'laster first. let soak for a few hours, then squirt on some more. pray to the great god thor for guidance---then knock the hell out of the drum with a baby sledge.

usually works.

wear safety glasses

relieves stress

if it don't work you will get tired enough to go nap and forget it.

Wheels won't even budge.

I haven't been able to back the shoes off with the adjustment wheel.

I'll try more brute force. Maybe soaking for a week will help.

Before you cut the drums maybe you could try removing the backing plates? Then soak the whole mess? Just a crazy idea...

Perseverance.
Remove the nut and wheel bearing. Try putting one or two flat bars between the drum and backing plate and apply pressure while you tap around the brake drum. You can fracture the drum if you hit it too hard. Hammer and wood block are good. A friend to help, also good.
Use one or two lug bolts screwed in the drum and a long pry bar to rotate the drum.
Brake drums from 36-50 will fit your truck BTW.

If the axle is off the truck, this to me would be a distinct disadvantage.However, if you can be sure that you can buy those drums new, then sacrificing the drums may be the answer. That is tough that they won't turn. If you are doing a restore, you will want to protect the rest of it, backing plates etc.

Those drums are not reproduced to my knowledge. Backing plates may be easier to obtain than the drums although there are alot of drums out there.

Anybody know what kind of brakes these are? If they are the Huck style, unbolting the wheel cylinders can help unstick the wheels.

I had the same problem with my son's '62. We got a lot of good advice here. Eventually we got the drums off without cutting! IIRC, one poster even recommended a blow torch. I don't remember who that was. It was over a year ago. But I'm pretty sure he claimed that heating the drum had worked for him....

I'd try almost anything else before destroying those drums. Looks like all the other bases have been covered.

PB Blaster and a gear pller worked on one. Now we'll see about the other.

Thanks for the advice

On a '57 2-ton I bought the left front drum had been sitting on the ground for so long the ground was above the adjuster hole. I ended up cutting a hole in the backing plate and cutting the adjuster out.

InMy40s in on the right track. Had the same problem before. Borrowed my brother in laws three prong drum puller and turned the handle and popped them off (maybe it was a gear puller but it fit the drums perfectly)

I heated around the outside of the drum with an acetylene torch, removed the bolts on the wheel cylinder and rotated the cylinder inside the backing. then I attached the wheel ring back on with a couple of studs (not the whole wheel, just the little donut shaped peice) and used a 4 foot 1 inch solid steel pry bar to move it all around.

took about 2 days, and 3 heatings (not to red hot, just make it hotter than the rest of the truck) expansion will break the rust bond.

since the axle is out fo the truck, you may want to pin it down with something really heavy while you futz with it. so that all your force is going into the drum and not into wobbling the axle about.

-Mike R.

After working on some old outboard motors, some from salt water use, I'd agree that lots and lots of heat is the way to go. And make sure the brake adjustment is backed off.

thats funny well at least it wasn't just me i used a can of pb blaster and a gear puller and i was even able to get my brakes to back off had even more fun and a bfh to get the rears off.

use a big crowbar (I went with one with a flat end and about 3' length) and start trying to break it loose. Once it comes loose, if you can't back it off, use a BFH.