2001 Caravan Rear Brake Drums

Has anyone had success at getting these buggers off? My wifes van was making a slight scraping noise when backing up, coming from the rear of the van. I pulled the wheel and tried to inspect the drum for cleaning (I don't know if I'm good enough of a mechanic to actually go into changing the brakes, will take it to a shop if need be) only to find that this rascal is tough to get off. A guy I talked to at a local shop basically told me to beat on it, they are pretty tough. I did manage to squirt a little non-flammable brake cleaner in the two access holes and around the perimeter, making a puddle of black stuff which I caught in my little catch pan, but there has to be a way to get that drum off. One reference says to creat slack in the emergency brake cable when the brake is "off", and I'll be darn if there is a whole lot of slack in it.

Does anyone have any ideas? It well could end up at the shop next week anyway, and I have changed the brakes before on my Rabbit, but that was a few moons ago and they weren't real complicated. Thanks.

I recently had the rear drums off of our 92 Caravan FWD.

I could not get the drums off by themselves, both sides were seized onto the hubs. The brake shoes were loose, that was not why they would not come off.

I had to take the bearings out and take the hub/drum off as one piece and then put the drum on the floor of the shop on top of a rag and place a piece of wood on the top of the hub area and strike it several sharp blows with a 3 lb hammer. This seperated the hubs from the brake drums.

I then replaced the hubs and bearings and went on to inspect the brake shoes and drums.

If your vehicle is a FWD this should work for you also. Just be careful not to hit on the wheel studs or you will end up replacing them.

If you are not confident in your ability to replace the shoes you should take it to a shop. They have to be correctly put back together for the brakes to work properly.

The rear self adjusters work to well on Chryslers, ( I'm use to GM which never work that well) Turning back the self adjusters on them is a pain. After a half hour of laying on the ground I took it to Pep Boys for the rear brake job

There should be a small access hole that you can stick a flat bladed screwdriver through and ratchet the self adjusters back to get some slack in. This is a major pain to do, I usually just beat on them with a rubber mallet until they drop off. I have found that soaking around the studs and center with a little wd-40 makes it a lot easier, I'll usually spray them down and let them sit and soak it up for about 6 hours first.

On my vehicle WD 40 and hitting with a rubber mallet didnt work. They were frozen solid onto the hubs. The adjusters were froze up and the rear brakes were barely working. That is why I wanted to take them apart.

I believe in my case that the drums had not been off of the hubs for a number of years and were thus frozen solid by rust.

They do tend to freeze up with rust and brake dust. I usually take mine apart once a year to check them, and also because if you don't take it apart annually, they'll freeze up on you.

HIRez L, I will try the WD idea (will it cause some smoking?) because someone at some point in time will need to get these off. It is 40 months old and has 53K on it.
I don't intend on doing the brakes, but was getting a "stick" first thing in the morning, and wanted to make sure there was nothing like a build up causing this. One thing I don't want to do is ruin anything that does not need replaced. That little access hole does not give you a whole lot of room to do anything. I was interested to see if anyone had any ideas with the emergency brake cable. Thanks for the info.
Waltham, I'm not confident in my ability to change them, but was hoping I could inspect them.

I've never had a smoking problem with the WD . . . I think anything you happen to get on the actual brakes burns off the first time they're used. I have one of my rear brakes that sticks first thing in the morning, too, and I've rebuilt everything back there, can't get it to stop . . . I finally decided since it only happens when i first start it, and the brakes work fine, I'm not going to worry about it.

I just went into my 2001 GCV rear brake drums to check a squeal i was getting when i crept....like at a drive thru or parking. My pads were ok just a build up of brake dust. I pulled my two off by inserting two screws (dont know what size, I use some from a fog light kit i had) into the access holes on the drum and evening ratcheted them to pop them off

Singlre, I saw those holes and I wondered if that would work, maybe with the WD40 done ahead of time. Since it doesn't look like they are using those holes for anything right now, as long as I can get the correct size/thread bolt it may be worth a try. Maybe that's how the dealers get them off?

Those bolt holes are for breaking the drum loose. If they strip out thought I use a Big craftman ball peen hammer and hit between the stud very very hard. Put the lug nuts back on though to protect the threads lest you miss!

Wrightbrigade...you've seen me hammer before!
It looks like I might end up trying these options as the cleaning I attempted Saturday only lasted 4-5 days and she said she started noticing it again today. Does anyone know how I can find what size bolt will fit in those little holes?