how do I get the drums off the rear of my 72 dodge dart. I know it must have something to do with the nut in the middle of the wheel. But, whic way should it turn if I'm doing the driver side rear wheel.

thanks

You should not have a nut on the rears, typically you will have to loosen the adjustment on the drum itself, this is done by getting underneath the rear supported axle & turning the star adjusting wheel(inside the drum behind the 2 access holes on the rear backing plate) until the drum is larger than the shoes. Also a hammer tapped around the drum helps loosen things up especially if rusted. someone on here can tell exaclty which way to adjust -but it shoud be e-z to figure out. Good luck ,

thats what I get for listening to my pal. I should of come here first instead of wasting my afternoon trying to move an immoveable object.

If the drum moves a little, but feels like you're pulling against a spring, then the shoes are definitely holding the drum - just back of the star wheel as per gotaDart's instructions.

Often, with old drum brakes, it's not the simple.

I'm from the rust belt, and the drums on my '73 Dart were really, really, really stuck right at the hub - nothing at all to do with the star adjuster. The drum wouldn't move in the slightest when I pulled on it.

I bought the special K&D drum removal tool (a big 3-arm puller gizmo that broke in the process - it had lifetime warrenty, but my parts place told me K&D no longer makes it nor will replace it) and a 3 lb ball peen hammer.

The removal tool pulls outward on the drum, but not enough to permanently deform it, and the hammer is to break the bond. I beat on the face of the drum near the hub quite a while (~1 hour) and on the special points on the tools' arms, used WD40 too, and eventually the drum popped off.

I also cautiously tried a propane torch too, but it didn't seem to help - I didn't want to damage the axle bearings and seal, so I didn't get it all that hot.

Some drums (but not my Dart's) have threaded holes (10-32 or so) to let you thread screws in and against the axle flange and pop the drum off; very slick.

Before I put drums back on, I clean the contact area between the flange and the drum up and coat it with a thin layer of antiseize grease; that seems to help the next time I get have to take drums off.

BYW, this was a also common problem on some Fords of the lates 60s - I seem to remember reading that the average force to pull off a Ford drum then was something like 5 or 15 tons.

If you got an rearaxel with a nut in the middle of the wheel, it would be an old 8 3/4, and then you should turn it to the left.

_________________
Lasse

Signet -66 225
Holley 600 Offy-5270 Dutra Dual,regrind. cam 272 0,420 110, head shaved 0.100 slight.ported
MSD6A
A904
7 1/4 3.23

My '74 Dart had threaded holes on each side so I could just thread in a bolt to pull them off. Th