rear drums

[66coronetgirlie]

I tried adjusting the pads but they will only expand, i can't get the adjusting wheel to turn in the opposite direction. I've tried and tried to move an imaginary retainer someone said was there, but I can't find it. I even had a mechanic friend attempt to remove them to no avail. I printed out a diagram of the rear brake drums and that doesn't help me either. Are these drums pressed on? How can I get them off? A big hammer and some WD40? lol

[SmellyHemi]

Funny you should mention this,cause i've stripped everything off my car and when i done that i drained the brake system b4 removing anything .

When i did try to get them drums off they would'nt budge.I thought it was cause i drained the lines but my mate reckons they should still come off,i'm not so sure tho,any ideas??.

So atm their sitting in the corner in the 'too hard basket'.

So yeah if no one can help us i'm i'm gonna bust out the sledgie .

BTW least you've only got 2,mines got drums allround LOL

[66coronetgirlie]

naw, mine has drums all the way around too. The fronts are just way more simple to maneuver than the back lol. I tried a small hammer and it didn't work. I've never really had a problem getting them off on other cars so I don't know whats going on. They are not power brakes, does that matter? Is there something different you do with them? They work fine right now. I was just attempting a thorough maintenance check of all the parts designed to wear, since i just got it. The guy wasn't very honest when he said it only needed headlights!!! I've put an alternator, electronic ignition system, fixed the wiper switch, changed the lock on the trunk (there was no key), pulled the heater b/c it had a bad heater core and replaced the valve cover gaskets. Now all thats left is finding the carb and at some point a radiator, then cosmetic stuff like carpet and paint, but that will wait. Still not bad for $1000 car I think.
I wish i could be more helpful with your car, but i think we are in the same boat.. minus the fluid issue LOL.
Good luck with the sledgie!!

[66coronetgirlie]

Ya know, I removed the rear drums on a 65 falcon I was building a few years ago, before I ran the brake lines. It was an old rearend that had sat in a conex box for years....so...
are you having issues getting the front off too?

[SmellyHemi]

Yeah i've pulled the front end so i can powdercoat it all,so yep the fronts on mine are giving me greif,hav'nt tried the back yet, besides i'm busy with other jobs on the car so i think i'll wait till you get yours done,then i can get some tips

Here's another thought,could it be a lip has formed on the edge of the pad???,although not in your case as you say,yours work fine.

About your car,i had a look at the pic,looks O.K to me for a grand heaps of potential.

Here's a shot of my 500buck special,minus the trims.I always get a car and in my excitement i start stripping it then think hang on i need a few pics.LOL

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...14/MISC106.jpg

She looks alot diff now,all primed ready for one last going over before paint.

[66coronetgirlie]

Right on! She's awesome!!
The body on mine is straight, just the guy before me put bondo in the trim holes. I'll sand that all off and drill it out i guess and put the trim back on at a later date. The interior is nice for what it is. The vinyl looks really good except the top of the rear seat is dried and cracked from sun exposure... new interior can wait, it's good enough for now. I'm not planning on showing it, like I said.. it's my daily drivin' grandma cruiser LOL It needs carpet, but that doesn't keep it from running, it has the plugs in the floor pan, so i'm good!! haha
On a different note.. i just decoded the vin on one of those free sites and it says that this car has the LA engine, which would be really cool, more parts available, ya know. I guess I need to get the numbers off the block, i've thought it was an A this whole time lol.

[SmellyHemi]

aaww shucks,your too kind,wait till you see the recent pics tho.

It was meant to be a qik spray job thats just snowballed,big time.I just could'nt stand doing it half hearted,so now i'm painting eeeevverything.I finaly finished under the car,i tell ewe NEVER again am i gonna paint under a car without a rotisserie absolute nightmare ,looks good tho. LOL

Yeah reading about your coronet is reminding me of our old family car,Valerie the VF Valiant,we only recently retired her.I bought the car cheap with the intension of doing a nice paint job and a few other mods,and was keen to take my time cause i had a good place to work on it.Long story short,some jerk stole our daily driver.So i had to slap up Valerie real quick,in the end she was a bit rough,but she was a top car and gave us some good times.

As for the codes,i'm hopeless with that sort of stuff,i have two other Chrysler mad mates and one of them is good with that stuff.

[66coronetgirlie]

i got it figured out. its the A not the LA. I was offered a 73 comet w/ a brand new 302/c4 for the dodge... i'm thinking ... NO. lol

[SmellyHemi]

Originally Posted by 66coronetgirlie

i got it figured out. its the A not the LA. I was offered a 73 comet w/ a brand new 302/c4 for the dodge... i'm thinking ... NO. lol

Sorry i'm not too cluey on the American cars,but i gather the comet is a ford with the engine and box combo,is this right???

If so

DON'T DO IT .

That would be klazy

Glad you figured it out

[vt-440]

So have we sorted the drum issue out or what?
The experience I have had with drums is the wheel cylinders get pretty badly corroded in the inner of the barrel where the pistons do not sit and if your 'auto adjuster' isnt working right, the piston travel range slowly moves outwards. this means it is awful hard for the pistons to retract come time to move. When the screw adjuster wont move, a copper hammer is usually the only way out, make sure the drum retainer screws are out too. soak the inside with possum piss, and tap and manipulate the drum off. the brake shoe lining will eventually give way and the drum should come off.
Good luck and viva la disc brakes! ha ha ha

[polyhead_318]

i gotta say, i'm sorry for laughing my loaves of at this one...but its only cuz it happened to ME TOO!! my 62 dart wagon is still in teardown phase, and still as toreback as the day i got it. i totally expected to have to do EVERYTHING when i bought it, so naturally i never checked the brakes. by the time i pulled the wheels, i almost decided to impale myself on a beer bottle. the front drums weren't so bad, but the rear driver side had apparently been dismembered with a cutting torch!! some idiot cut the outer section of the drum off, left the shoes, springs, and center section of the drum. of course, the springs, adjuster and other loose hardwares were all gone, presumably having fallen out while said idiot, or their customer, drove the car. it took a propane torch, a whole can of liquid wrench, a 30" prybar, a 3# sledge, two hours, and a bucket of profanities to remove just that stupid inner section of the drum!!! then, as if that weren't bad enough, the passenger side was just as bad! i had no cutting torch, so i took a pneumatic die grinder and spent four hours cutting the drum into multiple sections to remove it. once again, the center section was so seized onto the axle flange that i had to saturate it with liquid wrench, heat it with a torch, and pry it bit by bit.

moral of the story: your seized drums MAY have nothing to do with shoes and hardware. mine were rust seized onto the axle flange beyond belief! i was hammering, prying, heating, lubricating, and cussing for two days to finish getting them off. i still have to replace the lugs studs and track down replacement hardware for the driver side. and lest anyone should assume i went overboard, my father (who's been a mechanic for 30 years) tried for an hour and a half, got pissed off, went home, and told me to replace the rear end!!!

i'm with vt-440, "viva la disc brakes!"

let us know how it goes...

polyhead_318

[SmellyHemi]

Hey hey hey,progress report,News just in

WOOOHOOO i just got one drum off,just got another 3rounds

i gotta say, i'm sorry for laughing my loaves of at this one

Polyhead318 ,

no drama's mate,glad ya got a laugh cause you sure gave me a good one with your reply,i was reading it hunched over screaming 'NO,NO,NO' fearing the hurt i had in store.

I don't for a second think you went to extremes,i know how cars can be.

Thanx to both VT440 and ya'self for the help .

Just for you 66coronetgirlie,i got it off by first going out there and soaking it in WD40,then unwinding the adjuster for heaps & heaps(just to make sure),but that's where your stuck hey.

From there i grabbed the driver and pryed to have a look,i could see that it was the pads sticking so i grabbed bertha(sledgie) and had a coupla taps,no luck.

I could see the 2 springs stopping me from levering it out more so i jammed it open and knocked the springs free then i could pry it open heaps more while tapping and spraying,think i only swore twice.

Thanx again for the help guys

[polyhead_318]

66coronetgirlie,
if your axle is the same as/similar to mine (a '69 8.75" rear end), it may not have inspection holes to get to the adjuster, mine sure as hell doesn't! everybody told me i was an idiot cuz i couldn't find the inspection holes (they'd be in the middle of the bottom half of the mounting plate and you'd only see them from behind. sometimes they have plastic plugs in them). everybody spoke on ignorance and ended up wrong . just remembered that tid bit, which may explain the "imaginary retainer" thing....
also, after the fact, a buddy at work told me he drilled out the shoe pins from behind on his seventy-something camaro. the shoes were hung up in the rut they carved into the drum's inner surface. supposedly, disengaging the shoe retaining pins allowed him to pull the shoes out from the mounting plate inside the drum and get in with needle nosers to undo some springs. i don't know that i'd try that, or even how true that story may be to begin with, but options can be a beautiful thing.

best of luck to you, and smellyhemi as well.

[SmellyHemi]

Originally Posted by polyhead_318

also, after the fact, a buddy at work told me he drilled out the shoe pins from behind on his seventy-something camaro. the shoes were hung up in the rut they carved into the drum's inner surface. supposedly, disengaging the shoe retaining pins allowed him to pull the shoes out from the mounting plate inside the drum and get in with needle nosers to undo some springs. i don't know that i'd try that, or even how true that story may be to begin with, but options can be a beautiful thing.

best of luck to you, and smellyhemi as well.

Polyhead318,

yep that's pretty much what i done,although i did'nt have to drill a thing(bloody chevy drivers haha),i pryed in between the drumm and mounting plate until i could wedge a driver in there to hold it open,like you said just enough to get a pair of needle nose pliers to remove them springs,too easy really.

But yeah if they won't pry open i'd drill them.

And yeah there was a massive lip inside the drum + the drum has been machined waaaay too much.

[66coronetgirlie]

ok, well, The rear brakes are functional at this time. Mine has 2 inspection holes on the bottom rear side, only visible from behind, I can locate the adjuster wheel... I cannot get the adjuster wheel to move in the opposite direction to loosen the pads. However, I can tighten them like hell lol. I've had 3 friends and myself try for days, no luck. I will let them be for now. The front drums are in pretty good shape. I'll assume the rear are too, until I have issues with them. There is a small hole in the front, big enough for a small screwdriver to fit through ... there are small holes centered between all the lugs, all are filled except 1... maybe since it is different, it's useful in some way? I don't know.
Poly318 - your version of removing drums scares me!!! haha. I was worried and laughing at the same time! I want to keep this car as original as i can, so cutting it up or replacing the rearend is not an option I'm checking out right now, although putting a different rearend in would only take about 30 minutes as opposed to days of beating and cussing @ these drums lol. hmm... I'm at a standstill now, til I get some more parts in and order more. what is 'possum piss'? lol. i had to ask!! haha.
Poly318 - where in cali are you?
I'm not giving up guys, just taking a break from the brakes HAHA.

[polyhead_318]

be careful with those brakes...if your pedal suddenly goes soft or it requires ungodly effort to stop, quit driving that car until its fixed!

the way that i got my drums off i didn't damage the rear end. i did kinda gash my axle flange, but battle wounds add character right? anyhow, all i needto replace besides brakes are lug studs, which i planned on doing anyways - that opposing thread thing was one of chrysler's less that bright ideas... cutting the drums up will only force you to replace the drums, and under the curcumstances i'd plan on that either way.

your adjuster probably only wants to spin one way (to expand the shoes) because your brakes are self adjusting. anytime you brake in reverse, the shoes automatically adjust to compensate for wear. (some folks like these systems, others hate 'em. my '65 a100 had self adjusters and i never had a complaint). you might be able to get them to go in if you use a tool suited to that purpose, they make these lever things just for drum brake adjusters. i've never used one, but its a thought...

hailing from glorious modesto...
polyhead_318

[66coronetgirlie]

Right on! Had i known there was a tool available, i probably would've tried that first! LOL
Thanks.
ah, modesto... about 1.5 hours east of me. Do you ever go to any car shows in this area? What about Turlock every year???? That place is sooooo fun, if you remember your radioflyer wagon LOL

[SmellyHemi]

Originally Posted by 66coronetgirlie

what is 'possum piss'? lol. i had to ask!! haha

so VT 440 you gonna take this or should i .

If your serious and ya realy wanna know urgently,i can let you know.


Sorry but now i'm laugh'n my loaves off!!

[vt-440]

Originally Posted by SmellyHemi

so VT 440 you gonna take this or should i .

I'll take this one Smelly.
I'll let you straight in on this one,
'Possum piss' is another name for WD-40. You people should thank me, armed with that information, you could be in for hours of entertainment next time you walk into your local hardware and ask for a 'Can of Possum piss'......

PS. Congrats on the brake drum removal too, Smelly.

[66coronetgirlie]

LOL i kinda figured, but ya never know LOL
i was going to try to find a possum to piss in my drums haha! kidding
where do people come up with these names. lol

[polyhead_318]

i go to the turlock swap meet sometimes, i used to live three blocks down the road from the fairgrounds there 4 years ago. if i knew of mopar shows around i'd go, but i suppose i'd have to start paying attention!

[66coronetgirlie]

yeah, we have local shows here (not now, season is over ) but there's one on wednesday and saturday nights, then the typical, billetproof, paso robles (think it moved after this year though), rod n custom @ the cow palace... they are everywhere =P Its fun to see the diversity of what people do to their cars. I've noticed that a lot of car guys are brand specific and very opinionated on how things should be done LOL I think it's like artwork and everyone sees it in a different way, doesn't mean it's wrong. Though I see some things and think "WHY?" haha.

[polyhead_318]

i once went to a show and saw a double ended s10 blazer that had two engines, two drivelines, and could be driven in either direction. it wasn't street legal for some reason, but i suppose that could fall under the art category. certainly a feat of engineering and patience...

[4004speedrunner]

the oddest thing ive seen is a lawn mower with to 454 chevys on it unfourtanetly it left before I could get any pics or info about it