Ford Focus rear brake drum won't come off

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This is actually the second time on BITOG i've asked for help in removing something related to brakes, this time it's the rear drum on a 2000 Ford Focus SE. It has a 30mm bolt that holds it on, which is part of the bearing, I suppose. I took that off, came off ok, but the drum will only move about 1/4 of an inch. It doesn't seem to have a retractor on the back. I've pounded on this thing forever, and it doesn't want to come off. Any advice on removing stuck rear brake drums?

Also, in this case, there is no little hole on the drum to put a bolt through, and the wheel studs are part of the drum.
 
Does it have a rubber plug on the backing plate you can remove and stick in a thin screwdriver and a brake adjusting tool?

That is the way you would "un-adjust" drum brakes to get the drum off on drum brakes I have worked on.
 
If you really cant get it off. Try opening the bleeder screw and rotating it, it should eventually come off. Then bleed that brake when your done.
 
Is it rusted? My zx2 I just take a rubber mallet and wack one size of the drum and it is off.
 
Originally Posted By: tinmanSC
This is actually the second time on BITOG i've asked for help in removing something related to brakes, this time it's the rear drum on a 2000 Ford Focus SE. It has a 30mm bolt that holds it on, which is part of the bearing, I suppose. I took that off, came off ok, but the drum will only move about 1/4 of an inch.

Looks like you need a puller. Watch this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opNA1kOpKdc&noredirect=1
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Does it have a rubber plug on the backing plate you can remove and stick in a thin screwdriver and a brake adjusting tool?

That is the way you would "un-adjust" drum brakes to get the drum off on drum brakes I have worked on.

The only rubber plug is on the right side, as you are looking at it. This is on the passenger side, so it's toward the front of the car. I'm used to these plugs being on the top or the bottom. Also, none of the instructions I've found online say anything about retracting the shoes by removing the plug and clicking it back.
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Originally Posted By: driver123
On a Chevrolet you disconnect the E Brake , and the shoes should contract enough to remove the drum, not sure about Ford though.

E brake comes off from the inside, per the info I found online anyway.
 
Your shoes are stuck on a ridge inside the drum. The 1/4" you're getting are the shoes moving on their hardware... the springs and "nails". Probably you're going to need to buy a new hardware kit. Find anything "different" on the backing plate, use the other side as a mirror image diagram if you can. Cut the nail heads off and it'll fall apart.
 
Make sure you have the E-brake disengaged. I've seen it happen more than once where someone will pound on a drum thats locked in place by the E-brake.
 
What I did, since I did not have any special tools, was to rotate the drum and using a mallet hit the drum on just one side. Rotate about 90 degrees and hit the side of the drum. That basically started to wiggle the drum little by little. Once the shoes were exposed a bit I pushed on them with a screw driver to compress them as much as possible. It took about 15 minlutes and it did scratch up the shoes, but I was replacing them anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: OB4x4
Make sure you have the E-brake disengaged. I've seen it happen more than once where someone will pound on a drum thats locked in place by the E-brake.

This turned out to be a fantastic tip! I never set the e-brake, but in making 100% sure it was not set I found an issue with it. I pulled the e-brake (hand brake, by the gear selector) and it would not come up, it stopped after only a very short movement, not even to the first click. Seems there is a problem with it. Thanks for the tip.
 
Thanks to everyone who posted. It did turn out to be the e-brake. The cable had rusted and was pulling on it, keeping the shoes extended, which was probably why they wore out so quickly. I cut the e-brake cable and they popped right off. Now to replace the cable.
 
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