Itinerant Air-Cooled

What is the preferred method for coaxing a stubborn drum off the spline?

I have the brake shoes backed off all the way and the parking brake is released - the wheel spins freely so I don't think the shoes are interfering in any way. I've soaked with PB-Blaster overnight (might go another day) but it doesn't want to pull off. I left the wheel on the drum so I have something more substantial to grab but no amount of jostling seems to be budging it.

I managed to get the other side's drum off by whacking the axle "into" the bus, driving it back through the drum a bit to free it up. Is this an acceptable method? I used a piece of wood between the hammer and the axle to keep from marring the threads. Any other tips before I have to track down a huge wide-five drum puller?

I had good luck once by jacking up the tire/wheel - remove axle nut - crawl under car/bus and try kicking the tire out to loosen up the drum. Other methods we tried (but failed) heating the drum with torch, Stinky smoky grease, And just loosening the big axle nut quite a bit and turning in circles thinking the force would loosen it. Another no go but doing donuts with a loose axle nut does get the heart pumping ;)

I have no specific method in mind but do have a few ideas.

Try using a large drift so you can direct the blows accurately and give a few whacks around the center hole. The theory here being to loosen any crust that may be holding the drum to the spline. Another method I have used to get crusty splines out of CV's is to use a pneumatic hammer with a blunt end. You can hit the spline very accurately many times very quickly. One person pulling on the drum and one person driving the shaft out.

Just a few ideas. Good luck

Forgot to post at the time. Ended up spending $60 on a puller, but it was worth it.

Gypsie wrote:I have no specific method in mind but do have a few ideas.

Try using a large drift so you can direct the blows accurately and give a few whacks around the center hole.

This is good for the composite drums introduced in 1971. Pre-71 drums have to be pulled off the splines, and sped372's solution is the only good one for a nasty stubborn drum.
Colin