The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Taking off rear drum '46 1/2 ton

I replaced my main rear brake line as well as the 'T' and the lines going to each rear wheel today just for the sake of safety, bled the lines and now i've got a rear passenger side wheel "sticking".

It still turns when you put it in gear and drive, but when you let off the gas, you can tell it dosen't "coast" as nice as it did before.

I checked the '42 thru '46 shop manual, and tried to adjust the brake cylinders using the screwdriver method found here but the front adjustment just dosen't want to back up.. it will go forward a bit, but not back any farther than it already was.

I wanted to check to make sure things looked cool on the inside, but i'm not real sure how the drum comes off.. should it just "pop" off like more modern read drum brakes do?

I realise if the cylinders are extended it would make it comming off harder, and i'll probably want to take the brake line off to relieve any pressure in there (or at the very least open the bleeder) but just wanted to know what the standard method of removing the drum is.

Yes it comes off like most rear drums. After you take the wheel off it should come off but probably won,t. They can get really stuck. Spray some penatrant on it & go after it with a hammer. The cap on the end of the wheel cyl. is the adjuster. You will probably have to take them off & grease it with silecone grease. They are all right hand thhhreads so you can figure which way to adjust them.

Well I went out there and took the wheel off again, and stuck a big metal wedge in the groove around the outside of the drum, and got to work on it with a hammer.. she budged out about a quarter inch all the way around, but didn't wanna come any farther than that.

About that time the 30MPH wind started a blowin' and I decided that maybe today wouldn't be the day to fool with it, so I smacked the drum back down with the hammer, and put the wheel back on.. much to my delight, the wheel didn't feel "stuck" anymore.

So I lowered it back down and took a spin around the yard and she's free as a bird.. I guess all the bangin' I did on it knocked whatever was sticking loose.

On a less windy day, i'm going to see about going back at it.. I can handle the cold, it's that darn wind that bothers me.. it's like chineese water torture!

Hi; Just a guess, but I've been where you are with the brake drum. Here's what I suspect is gong on: The old shoes wore into the drum a little and there is ridge at the back edge of the drum that didn't wear. When you try to get the drum off, that ridge catches on the shoes and it sticks. In the process, forcing the ridge part on the shoes compresses them slightly. This is why it freed up a little. If you ever get the drum off you should have it turned to remove the ridge or at least grind it off with your angle grinder.
Rich

When I did the brake job on my 46 1/2 ton I had the same problem on getting the left rear brake drum off as it was froze up. I used lot of pentrating oil and two large pry bars and a big hammer. When I got the drum off I found a broken brake spring which let the shoes stay in the brake position plus all of the huck linkage was siezed up. I replaced all brake shoes and springs and rebuilt all wheel cylinders. I also wire wheeled all the huck linlage and pins and used anti sieze when I put it back together. I also rebuilt the master cylinder and replaced all the brake lines and now I have good brakes.
Jamo