Since my rear drums have begun squealing I've decided to get new shoes, but im at the point where I take the drum rotor off and it will not budge. I've used penetrating oil, torched and hammered the crap out of it to no avail, and I dont really want to take the whole axle shaft out just to do my shoes, anyone have any tips on getting this off of there?

 

BIG FREAKIN HAMMER! Oh and anger!!! Lol

 

hes right, your doing everything your supposed to. use a bigger hammer!! or take it to a brake shop and have them break it loose for you, thats what I had to do to get my front rotor unstuck, all they did was use a bigger hammer good luck

 

Bought a 2000XJ with 102,000 miles and it never had the rear brakes done...ever. Seems kinda beyond belief but I ran into the same issue as you have. I tried all you mentioned and finally used a 10 lb sledge. The only caution I used was to not mess the lugs up when I hit the drum. I used all due force and finally after 2 or 3 minutes, each drum came loose. Good luck.

 

i had the same problem on my jeep..if you will take a "decent" sized hammer..and hit it bluntly between the lugs..in a rotating order..it will eventually come off..with a bigger hammer you take the risk of warping your drums..the big ball peen hammers work great..just dont hit your lugs!

 

3-5lb sledge works good!

 

By chance did you back the shoes away fromthe drum withe the adjuster accessable thru the rear of the backing plate? If you did x2 on a bigger hammer lol

 

X2

the shoes are grooved into the drum they will not come off easy unless you back them off

 

Thanks guys, I got them off. I went to the auto parts store and bought new drums so I wouldn't have to baby the old ones off. I just heated them and kept spraying oil and pounding until they finally broke loose, I wouldn't have been able to re-use them I beat them so bad, but w/e. I just ran into a new problem, I cant get the parking brake plate onto the shoe, the little ring I have to crimp on is being extremely difficult, but im giving it up for the night. Trying again fresh tomorrow.

 

Ya when I did mine I bought all new hardware the kit is only like $6 per side! Also it helps a ton to have an extra set of hands when putting it all back together!!!
Good luck man