Hi All,

This weekend I tried to remove the rear brake drums of our '85 Westy
"Pearl" who is a fairly recent acquisition.
My plan was to pull the drums off without the hubs per the Haynes manual.
However, even after loosening the self-adjust wheel and the parking brake
adj. nut, I couldn't free the drum.  I think the shoes were off the drum
because the wheel turned very freely.  I didn't have a rubber mallet so I
don't know how persuasive my t-shirt wrapped hammer blows were in
attempting to free the drum.

The Bentley manual prescribes drum removal via pulling the hub.  This would
certainly get the drum off but I would like to avoid getting a hub puller
and having to retorque that axle nut to a zillion ft-lbs.

Can anyone offer advice?  Is the Haynes approach doable or do I have to use
the Bentley method?  Also, any suggestions on a good way to turn the
self-adjusting wheel behind the backing plate--I was really struggling with
that part.

Thanks,
Scott