At 15:27 10/25/2000, Ed Mellinger wrote:
>Many thanks for the tips on rear brake service.  I find my rear drums
>pretty solidly frozen to the hubs... is there a special puller or
>extractor for it, or is it just simpler to deal with the 46 mm nut?

You're welcome.  The drums have a snug fit on the hub, a little rust and
they stick.  Penetrating oil there, then tap with a hammer -- once you get
it to wiggle a little you've won.  I haven't had occasion to try it, but
several people say that good solid taps between the lug holes will do it
nicely.  You can also pry gently between the hub and backing plate, but
this is risky b/c the backing plate is probably pretty shaky.

Dealing with the Big Nut is not easy (unless you heat it red hot, in which
case you've ruined it).  People without gigantic impact wrenches tend to
use lo-o-o-ong handles and stand on them.  Bus Depot and others sell a
stamped plate wrench with the big hole on one end and a half-inch drive
hole at the other -- I welded mine to a long bar I had lying around.  360
lb-ft is also not trivial to obtain -- I did some calculations and made
notches and a stirrup for the bar, so that a person of weight x could stand
at notch y and exert the proper force.

david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"