Team,
You guys have been helping me here and there with lots of rust issues and now I've got another. I bought a 12 bolt from someone that had a good deal of rust. I was able to get one drum to freely spin with some work. The other is still frozen solid. I've noticed my drums don't have the slots in them to back off the gear that adjusts the brakes. Is this common?
Back to the side I got to spin. I decided to attempt to remove this drum. With lots of beating and prying I thought I was getting somewhere. It was starting to wiggle around the studs. At this point I thought I bet the rust and I could easily remove.........WRONG.
After lots of prying with everything I could find in my garage I noticed one brake pad is stuck in the drum. I've pryed it out far enough to see the one pad where you would expect. And the other is still in the drum. The springs have broke that hold it down and are ratteling around in the drum. I'm exhausted from beating and using a pry bar. I think I've most likely broken everything in there attempting to get it off. IDEAS? Here are some pictures.
http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa265/dauber65/12%20Bolt/

Pull the diff cover of and take out the c-clip and slide the whole axle out. Sounds like the drum has fused to the shoe.

Try using a grinder to remove the head from the little pins that hold the shoes onto the backing plate. In the one pic. It looks like one has already broken.

Another approach is to put pressure on the drum with a pry bar between the drum and backing plate and smack the drum all around the outside with a BFH.

Trust me. I've pryed the heck and beat the snot out of it with a very large hammer. It is not budging. Maybe I'm confused. The brakes will pull out with the axle? I just assumped the hub with the studs pulled out and all the brake stuff stayed behind. I have to remove the clips anyways to install a locker. I'm an idiot if the brakes pull out with the axle. I have spent entirly too much time on this if that is true.

PS~Any insight for the lack of slots in the drums? How do I adjust the brakes?

It looks like the slots haven't been removed yet. Look at the area to the left of the top center. There is a slight indentation, there is another 180* from it. You just have to knock them out with a chisel. then you can back off the adjuster.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50/gerdanc/drum.jpg



Or get out the flaming hacksaw!!!!

Whoa there is so much rust on that thing I didn't see them!!! I feel like an idiot! Thanks for the find.
Back to my original question about pulling the axles. Will the brakes pull out with them? I know this is a SUPER rookie question. But I'm the guy that didn't notice the slot knock-outs.

If the retainers are still on the shoes, no they will not pull off, but you can grind the heads off the pins as suggested by scott. Then you should get enough play to remove the whole assembly once the c-clip is out.

After looking at the pictures I believe removing the C-clips might be the best bet. I think the brake shoes and hardware are now hung up behind the axle flange. Also for the shoes to be that far away from the backing plate the nails would almost have to have pulled thru or broken but check first.
Mike

Ya if I knew more about these rears that would certianly be helpful. I have a ten bolt I can study, are they identical setups? I do know that the springs are still intact with the stuck brake pad because if I get it turned where the drum lines up with the studs it wants to pull the drum back towards the backing plate.

Well I got both sides off. It was a royal battle. I ended up gutting everything through the crack I could see between the backing plate and drum. I cut all the sprints. There were no slots open to back off the backer gear, so I wedged my way in to undo them. I found my drums are in terrible shape and must be replaced. This rear just gets worse and worse. I know guys have them laying around, but they weigh a ton. I bet they would be expenisve to ship.

The brake setup is the same for the 10 and 12-bolt, so you can refer to the 10 to see how it is. The brakes will fit the 12-bolt as well, just transfer everything brakewise over to the 12. Good luck.

One of my drums off the 10 bolt has a big chunk missing from it. I'm guessing that would be a balancing issue. The brake hardware I might transfer.

All or most of that brake hardware is readily available in kits probably at your local parts store new! Probably wouldn't cost more than $20 bucks for the springs and keepers, pins etc.

In some shops all that stuff is replaced with the brake job. One reason there are no holes in the backing plate is the rear brakes are self adjusting when you are in reverse and hit the brakes a few times.

Hope you didn't dig too deep for that 12-Bolt sounds like you are only going to get to keep the housing and replace everything else....not a bad way to go either with the third main part of the Powertrain behind the engine and tranny. You want it so you can trust it.

Good luck

Well I paid 400 bucks for it. It has an open 3.36 in it. I bought a LockRight Locker to put in. So I will be keeping the gears. I've wondered myself if I would have been better off buying a unit from you guys. I always thought the 1,000 for these things were redicuious, but I'm going to be very close to that by the time I finish.