2007 Vue Drums Stuck

[guitarjesus]

Original drums and pads on my 07' Vue with 80k on the clock. We don't drive the car much anymore, went to the store with it, heard grinding from the rear.

I managed to get the driver's side drum off just fine. The passenger side is a pain. The drum turns, slight grinding sound can be heard, but it wont pull off!

I used PB Blaster, let it soak overnignt. Gave it a good hammering on the back lip of the drum and top, left, and right lean forward. The bottom does not, I'm guessing due to the e-brake?

The e-brake is not engaged so I'm at a loss. Also the self adjuster is just about maxed, and the access hole is too small to get two screwdrivers in, one to push the claw, the other to reverse the adjuster wheel.

Some advice is appreciated. I need this vehicle for my son ASAP!

[lrbraner]

Patience and ultimately brute force may be necessary.
It is free from the hub ?

[waiter21]

I beat mine with a big hammer. One of them came off, but the other broke.

[guitarjesus]

Originally Posted by lrbraner

Patience and ultimately brute force may be necessary.
It is free from the hub ?

Yeah, not stuck to the hub. I'm guessing the combination of the e-brake mechanism and and the hardware holding the pads together are the issue. If I can get some good cutters or a cutoff wheel in there, I'll try to cut the hold down springs for the pads.

[fdryer]

Originally Posted by guitarjesus

Original drums and pads on my 07' Vue with 80k on the clock...... I managed to get the driver's side drum off just fine.....The e-brake is not engaged so I'm at a loss. Also the self adjuster is just about maxed, and the access hole is too small to get two screwdrivers in, one to push the claw, the other to reverse the adjuster wheel.....

Examine the driver's side brake drum. You should see a lip on the inside. This is the original material when the drum was new. As the drum wears, brake shoes contact only the area that's shiny, showing a wear pattern. The farthest inside and outside drum remains intact. The e-brake allows the star wheels to adjust as brake shoes wear down, adjusting shoes close to drums. The star wheel adjuster prevents shoes from retracting as they're always ratcheting to force shoes towards drums. Releasing the e-brake won't reverse star wheel adjustments. As drums wear down, a lip forms from material not worn away. This lip is preventing drum removal. Your two choices are to reverse the star wheel to retract the arms keeping the shoes spread into the drum and/or hammering the drum off. Retracting the star wheel is your best option as the two arms retract to let both shoes come together to clear the lip. This allows the drum to come off without hammering on it.

It's easy to mistake star wheel adjustment when you're not performing drum brakes services in a brake shop.

[DrewsBrews]

I replaced a wheel bearing on passenger rear. Spent about an hour+ getting the drum off.. most of the time thinking it was probably a futile effort. I tried every angle I could to peek into the access hole but could not tell where the star wheel was. But eventually I was able to get the lip over the edges of the shoes and slowly turn it one way then the other applying outward force creeping it off a tiny bit at a time. There was so much binding Id have swore I was going to break something. Took a grinder to the lip so I wont have that problem again but I shudder to think Ill need to eventually get the drivers side drum off.

[fdryer]

I found thru trial and error this method to determine which way to retract the star wheel so the arms are screwed back into the star wheel housing; adjust the star wheel, with e-brake released, several clicks at a time then try turning the drum. If adjusting creates more braking against turning, the star wheel was adjusted in the wrong direction. Reverse the the action. As soon as the correct adjustment retracts the brakes, the drum will begin turning easier. Just keep adjusting, several star wheel revolutions as the drum now turns easily. Try removing the drum. If the drum still hangs on the lip, adjust some more. Either the drum comes off easily because the brakes are fully retracted to clear the lip or some hammering should help remove the drum.

All mechanical star wheels use a ratchet action. They're crudely designed to lock the star wheel, preventing reverse rotation, expanding brake shoes towards drums to lessen pedal travel. The clicking is the ratcheting action as using brakes and pulling the e-brake handle allows micro adjustment of both drums. The star wheel can move in reverse rotation without seeing it but once a mirror is used to see the star wheel and lever, it becomes easier to have a picture of it. Then its just a matter of either turning the wheel clockwise or counterclockwise. The 'wrong' rotation moves the brake shoes towards the drum, making it more difficult for drum removal. Normally adjusting new brake shoes requires some preadjustment after new shoes and drum are assembled to have shoes drag slightly. Break in occurs automatically when driving for some miles as new shoes bed in. Brake shoes on drums are always adjusting towards the drum as shoes wear. Reversing the star wheel retracts the two arms to retract shoes to clear the lip for drum removal.

[Bill Murray]

Hopefully your adjustment back-off works. If it doesn't and you break the drum in the process of knocking it loose, they are 15 bucks from Raybestos on Rockauto.

[Cavell]

Bought one with a frozen rear hub. Wheel would not roll. Dragged it 100’ to flat bed. Still wouldn’t budge. Couple whacks with sledge hammer got it off. I replaced hub. Still have original drum.
When I reverse and stop, I hear a click-click from that side. I might look at trailing arm eventually. Hopefully there is no frame rust.

[guitarjesus]

To say this was a effing chore is an understatement. I have a 1997 F350 that had 5 year stuck drums that were 10x easier than this.

The driver's side was completed without much fanfare, the passenger side? Oh lordy...

The self adjuster was maxed out, and refused to back off, even when I had it set up perfectly to reverse. The drum was off enough I could see inside and get some tools in there, so a long screwdriver unhooked the bottom spring, aviation snips cut the top spring, and then I unbolted the wheel cylinder and the hub, and used a Sawzall to cut the damned adjuster in half. The front shoe was worn past the lining, always nice...

I already have shoes and a hardware kit, so I'll just get a wheel cylinder and drums (way too worn out to reuse)

Here's some pics of my debacle:


The tools needed to make this happen...



Drum off! With hub and backing plate put back...



Lots of shavings...



See how bad the shoe was worn down...