Brake Drum Removal

[nate6472]

The LR repair manual says I should have some screws which allow removal. My 82 SIII 88" does not have any screws. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks

[rovertek]

you should still have a threaded hole to allow a bolt to be threaded in and as it is threaded in it will push the drum out.....

[nate6472]

There are 2 holes, one large which goes inside the drum and one smaller which has metal behind it. The larger hole should have threads which I can screw in a bolt to push off the drum ?????

[LaneRover]

Usually the screw sits in the hole that goes into the drum to help hold the brake drum on (because the tire and rim aren't quite good enough I guess). Usually you take the screw out of that and then put it in the threaded hole that has metal behind it. Do not use this to 'force' the drum out but as a way to hold it out once you have been able to get some movement.

Our hosts have those screws but any screw of the same size and the same threading will help with drum removal.

Hope this helps.

Brent

[Drain Rovers2]

are they just being held on there by the lug nuts because I know that that is what I did because those screws are hard to get out, your brakes work fine though because the shoes could be holding them on there if they are not working properly.
Good Luck!

[nate6472]

that's what I think is happening BUT I didn't want to tap on it with a hammer unless it was true.

[Jeff Aronson]

The screws that help hold the drum in place are relatively wide and short. They have a slotted, flathead screwdriver top. Since they're quite short they don't do a lot of the "holding" of the drum in place. That said, they should be on there. I'm pretty certain they're a fine thread/odd size that can be harder to find.

There's a single hole, narrower than the others, that serves as a way to take a bolt that will fit and, using a wrench, tighten it such that it helps push the drum away from the shoes and the backing plate. It's a better bet than hammering it off because you won't crack an edge that way.

If you must hammer it off, go all the way around the drum and don't try to remove it from just one spot. Also, make certain your brakes adjusters are in all the way to lessen resistance.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Drain Rovers2]

You can Tap it with a hammer but when this happend to me I had to pry between the backing plate an the drum with a screw driver top and bottom, so that the drum comes off evenly. You can also ajust the bolt on the back of the backing plate(This moves the shoes in and out.) That could help also.

[Papa Romeo]

I'm in the same situation- trying to remove the brake drums. I have one flathead screw per drum, and they are stuck. My feeble attempts thus far to remove them with a wide screw driver have begun to deform and chip the screw heads. Any suggestions on removing these screws without destroying them? Thanks, PR.

[Andrew IIA]

I'm in the same situation- trying to remove the brake drums. I have one flathead screw per drum, and they are stuck. My feeble attempts thus far to remove them with a wide screw driver have begun to deform and chip the screw heads. Any suggestions on removing these screws without destroying them? Thanks, PR.

I had this problem. i used a manual impact-hammer-gizmo (can't recall what its supposed to be called) with a slot head insert. inexpensive local hardware store device: align the driver in the screw slot, hit it with a hammer and it compresses and rotates anticlockwise about a 1/8th of a turn; repeat, repeat, as necessary. use a dab of anti-seize or grease on the threads when replacing.

This thing:

http://www.justih.org/Binder-Bench/attachment.php?attachmentid=13549&stc=1&d=1276113338

[disco2hse]

Andrew beat me to it (although that one looks a little light-weight to me). Alternatively if you have access to an air supply a hammer drive will do the job. Good electric drills also have hammer drives but you need to set the speed low enough that it doesn't take off.

Good liberal application of penetrating oil first. If you use the impact driver in Andrew's post don't be shy with the hammer and use an engineering hammer (ball peen or similar) of sufficient weight (2-5lb). Carpentry or lighter hammers will tend to flake after some time and you don't want a shard of steel lodging itself in your eye.

[LaneRover]

Andrew beat me to it (although that one looks a little light-weight to me). Alternatively if you have access to an air supply a hammer drive will do the job. Good electric drills also have hammer drives but you need to set the speed low enough that it doesn't take off.

Good liberal application of penetrating oil first. If you use the impact driver in Andrew's post don't be shy with the hammer and use an engineering hammer (ball peen or similar) of sufficient weight (2-5lb). Carpentry or lighter hammers will tend to flake after some time and you don't want a shard of steel lodging itself in your eye.

I have and have used the 'hand operated impact tool' that Andrew used and it works really well on the brake drum screws.

[TeriAnn]

Lots of interesting questions and replies.

When the drum sits tight and flat against the flange rust builds up as we drive through water and other damp locations. This rust tends to glue the drum to the flange.

The little screws (mine have 2 screws/drum) are the factory's method of breaking the rust bond between the flange and drum, breaking the drum loose. They do not aid in fastening the drum to the hub. That is the job of the wheel and wheel nuts. THEREFORE there is no reason to tighten these little flat head screws down or if you have a better place to store them where you are sure never to loose them and they are always accessible, you can store them there. Personally, I slather the threads of these screws with anti seize and only screw them in enough so that the head does not sit proud. They always come out easily and are ready to use to break the rust seal and start the drum moving off.

If your drums are really rusted on you can squirt Liquid Wrench or equiv into the blind screw holes to help get things started. If they really don't want to slide off it can be helpful to adjust the snail cams all the way in to back the shoes away from the drums.

When I first got my truck back in '78 the screws were rusted tight into the drums. The impact screw drive was a wasted effort on my screws. After a night or two with liquid wrench, I got a left hand drill and drilled a hole into the middle of the screws and used an easy out.

I replaced all the old rusty screws with new plated ones and with the anti seize have never had a problem with the screws since.

The Land Rover factory service recommendations for Series trucks says:

- Remove brake drums and inspect for wear and leaks every 24,000 miles. and replace all the rubber in the hydraulic system with new kits every other time you do this, leaking or not.

If you actually drive your truck and put miles on it this is often enough to keep the drums from rusting too tightly to the flanges. If you don't drive your truck much it wouldn't hurt to remove the drums every could years and inspect the brakes anyway. It would keep the drums from sealing too tightly to the flange.

Since I'm off on a tangent. The factory service schedule is located in the owners manual for your truck. If you do not have an owners manual I have reproduced the serviced schedule on a web page:

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/Service_Schedule.html

[SafeAirOne]

Working from memory, here, but IIRC, on my SIII 109, the drums have an additional hole on the face that is tapped for the same thread as the 3 countersunk screws. Not sure if other drums have this feature.

One can thread a bolt into that hole so that it pushes outward against the hub flange, assisting one in removal of the drum.

Since there's only one threaded hole, I wouldn't recommend using it as the SOLE method of getting a drum off thats REALLY rusted tight, but rather as a constant outward force while you use all the other magic methods.

[SafeAirOne]

Had my drums off the other day to replace shoes and hub seals so I snapped this pic of the threaded hole in the drum that I was talking about and also the last-ditch method of removing the 3 countersunk screws using a drift and hammer.

Needless to say, I subscribe to the "slather anti-seize compound over everything" school of thought:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6192139712_d8e963503e_z.jpg

[cedryck]

Always a good idea to slap some anti seize around the lugs. A touch of heat may expand the drum to assist in removal.

[Jim-ME]

For the cost of a drum screw I just pitch the old ones and use a new one with never seize every time I pull a drum. Makes life a lot simpler.
Jim

[Papa Romeo]

Thanks for all the replies. I successfully removed the brake drum screw with an impact screwdriver. I will heed the advice to use new screws and anti-seize. Now that the drum is off, I've learned that Lightweight hubs don't look anything like standard SIII hubs. Even with the drum off, the hub assesmbly blocks access to the brakes themselves. Either I've got the wrong green bible or there is no mention of how to access the brakes around the hub. All pointers are welcome! -PR

[jac04]

Now that the drum is off, I've learned that Lightweight hubs don't look anything like standard SIII hubs. Even with the drum off, the hub assesmbly blocks access to the brakes themselves.
Other than the flat style end caps (on Lightweights with pre-rationalized axles), the hubs look exactly the same as regular SIII hubs. Post a picture of what you're seeing, the brakes should be fully accessible after removing the drum.

[SafeAirOne]

They probably show the brake assembly with the hub removed in the book. Otherwise, you wouldn't see anything.

The springs are all located behind the hub flange, so you have to work around it.

[Papa Romeo]

Here's a picture... as has been said, the flange blocks the view. Even when I'm looking down on it, I can barely see the springs. Thanks in advance for the help.

[SafeAirOne]

That looks pretty normal.

What I do is to install the bottom spring, weave the shoes around the hub with only one side of the top spring hooked. Once it's behind the hub, I connect the other side of the top spring.

Next, using a long screwdriver, I lever one shoe almost into its bottom seat. Do the same for the other side. There'll be a lot of bottom spring tension to overcome. The bottoms won't fully seat till the tops are seated in the wheel cylinder.

Carefully lever each shoe top into its position on the wheel cylinder, taking care not to rip the boots, then make sure that the shoe bottoms click into their seated position.

[Papa Romeo]

Perfect instructions. Done. Now I can get on with the weekend! Thanks much.

[SafeAirOne]

It just occurred to me--I had 109 rear brakes in mind when I wrote the instructions. 88 brakes may or may not be different--I don't know. The 109 brakes don't have that ring-thingy on the bottom to retain the shoes, but rather look like the setup in the 3rd photo down on this page on TeriAnn's website:

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/landRoverFAQ/FAQ_rearbrakes.htm