Miles Posted February 17, 2002 Share Posted February 17, 2002 In the process installing new shoes on the 240Z. Driver's side drum came off easy. The passenger side drum is stuck as if it were welded to the hub. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denny411 Posted February 17, 2002 Share Posted February 17, 2002 If you have a blow torch handy. heat the center of the drum in between the studs and around the very center of the hub,get it as hot as possible,smack it a few times with a hammer between the studs.if this doesn`t work the first time,repeat and follow by quenching with a liberal flow of water from a garden hose until completely cool,then smack it again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 17, 2002 Author Share Posted February 17, 2002 Denny I'll give it a try. Any safety issues? That passenger drum is close to the gas filler hose. Have you done this before? Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted February 17, 2002 Share Posted February 17, 2002 Miles, here is an on line tutorial prepared by Eric Neyerlin. Removing brake drums Hope this helps. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 17, 2002 Author Share Posted February 17, 2002 I'll try the heat approach today. Thanks Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 18, 2002 Author Share Posted February 18, 2002 Got the drum off. Don't do this if you have good drums...I drilled all the way around the hub with a 3/8 drill bit being careful not to score the hub. The drum finally pulled away after I drilled the last hole. Lots of rust on the hub. Found that the shoes were soaked with brake fluid and the adjuster was jammed. Original plan was to rebuild the front brakes first. At this point I think I'll just go ahead and rebuild the rear brakes. Learned some things about Z brakes. The cylinders and the stock shoes are different on the left and right side. The after market shoes (Raybestos) I bought are the same for both right and left sides. The seem to fit ok. I tried to buy stock Nissan shoes but none could be found locally. Once I get the rears rebuilt I would like to try the Ferodo "Green Stuff" shoes and Metal Master front pads. Anyone out there using the Ferodo shoes? Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleek Z Posted February 18, 2002 Share Posted February 18, 2002 Miles, Too bad you did not follow Dan Juday's tip first about my tutorial on removing troublesome brake drums . Everything was there to save you a lot of pain and mess. IMO, applying heat or drilling the aluminum brake drums should be your very last course of action. If you did not permanently warp or damage your drum you are most lucky. Now that you have one off, you might want to check the other side as well. Cleaning up the rust and crude down to solid metal inside the drum, especially around the both the contact surfaces around the studs is also a wise idea to prevent the problem reforming quickly. Note, a reader of my article wrote me to say that he had found that using a slide hammer hooked over the fins was a good alternative to using a block of wood and hammer from the backside, as I recommended. I'd have to agree mostly with the exception that the metal hook could do more damage than the wood approach. Good luck, Eric Neyerlin - owner of ZPARTS.COM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 18, 2002 Author Share Posted February 18, 2002 Eric I did follow the artical, but that passenger side drum would not budge. I tried repeated heat, hammering and even dry ice to no avail. The driver's side drum was deeply grooved so I decided to just go ahead and do a 100% rebuild on the rear brakes including new drums. The stuck drum was also deeply scored as the previous owner evidently couldn't get the drum off either and let the shoes wear to the metal. When I am done all front and rear brake components will be new except for the hard pipes. Thanks Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted February 19, 2002 Share Posted February 19, 2002 I have to agree with Miles - sometimes those methods just DON'T WORK. I tried everything on that brake removal link, and none of it worked for me. Mine was frozen on, wouldn't come off with heat (15 minutes of propane torch), hammer, sledge hammer, grinding, etc. Shoe release switch didn't do anything, and the parking brake was off. I wound up dropping the whole strut assembly, removing it with the disk brake, taking an impact gun to the stub axle nut (27 mm socket, i believe), and then just whacking it with a sledge to get the drum off. It was frozen shut wit rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted February 19, 2002 Share Posted February 19, 2002 Originally posted by auxilary:I have to agree with Miles - sometimes those methods just DON'T WORK. I tried everything... Gosh, I remember that! You even tried whining and that didn't even work! Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 19, 2002 Share Posted February 19, 2002 Take a disc grinder to those drums and cut them off like a doctor does an old cast. Sounds like they are not worth saving anyway. A guy can tear and break everything up trying to get off what he will discard any way. I busted up more good parts removing junk from them. Cut it out. A lttle vandalism settles your frayed nerves. A relative of mine with a shop has a lot of various cheap wrenchs for the sole purpose to weld on the worn out shoulders of hex nuts or bolts to remove them. If he cannot remove a nut or bolt with a good box end wrench , out comes a cheap wrench and the wire welder.He says it is cheaper to destroy an inexpensive wrench than waste his valuable time on some lengthy removal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl327 Posted February 19, 2002 Share Posted February 19, 2002 yeah, its time to get rowdy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeventy8 Posted February 22, 2002 Share Posted February 22, 2002 I have never had to play with aluminum drums, but cast iron will always come off with a good soaking of penetrant on the center (PB Blaster comes to mind) and hitting the drum at a 45 deg. angle at 9:00 (3:00 if a righty) far harder than you think you should with a 2 lb. sledge. Works on my Z, '69 Cutlass, Monza, etc. A shop teacher at Sierra (Sacramento anyone?) showed me years back. Low tech still has a place in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redzedsled Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Really old thread, but I was wondering why nobody mentioned a 9" gear puller. You can pull both drums in less than ten minutes, with no damage to the drums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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