Anyone changed drums/shoes?

[Licit]

Anyone done drums/shoes on their car or anyone elses? I was trying to do my buddy's from work and could not get the drum to come off. On my girlfriends Taurus they popped off after a couple bumps all around. On this guys I undid the hole in the backing and adjusted the star wheel to get the shoes back off the drums, and they were because I could rotate the drums easily enough. But after hitting around the sides and front a dozen times with a rubberhead hammer still not a bit loose. Should I get some rust remover and spray the heck out of it, then bang it real good? I just didn't want to go smashing the drum for fear of busting something rather than replacing the shoes for him. The Haynes manual was absolutely no help of course, damn thing always expects things to go so smoothly(and then leaves you to fill in the blanks when a problem occurs).

[schizm99]

The shoes have actually grooved themselves inside the drum... If you try to pull them off the brake assembly will come all undone inside if i'm not mistaken!

[2KGAGTguy]

I had this problem with another car a couple years back....some WD40, a hammer, and patience is pretty much what it takes. In my case, the drum had rusted to the wheel hub, plus it's such a tight fit over the hub center.

Another thing to try is hitting the back of the drum. Get a length soft metal, place it on the back lip of the drum and hit the metal with a hammer, and do it in several places. You don't wanna beat the tar out of it of course.

[Licit]

So WD40 will work about as good as rust remover/lube? I should have sprayed down the wheel hub and drum front because they were rusted together. Not only that but some shop must have gone at it with his lug nuts, I checked with my torque wrench and they were a good 50 ft.lbs. over the recommended spec. I'll have to try spraying/banging first. I hate to bang on the brake backing plate even with metal in between, it seems like some low quality that could end up warped.

[peeps]

On my 85 GP I once ran the rear brakes down so far they cut into the drums and we ended up almost having to buy me a new rear axle after finally getting them off....good luck!

It was too long ago for me to remember how we got them off, but we did have to do some repairs to the brake assembly..:(

[Licit]

Well it looks like that shouldn't be the deal with his car because the shoes were replaced within a reasonable amount of time. Plus I was able to spin the drum after I backed off the shoes by adjusting the star wheel through the back. I wonder if that would have helped you Peeps. Granted it is a major pain in the ace getting 2 screwdrivers in the little hole in the brake backing but you can tell quickly if it's working since the drum will be able to spin. I'm not looking forward to working the rust and over-torqued lugs problem out but it should work. Another question, why do they state that you must change the shoes at the same time like 3 times in the manual. Is there really idiots that do one side and call it a day?:)