Procedure for pulling front drums

I have a buddy who just got a CJ3A and the front right brake is sticking. The plan is to pull the drum and check/rebuild the wheel cylinder, but I don't have any experience with the drums on these older jeeps. He says it needs a gear puller and 2 1/2" socket to get the hub assembly off, but that sounds like an awful lot of labor to get at a drum. I did a search, but most of the questions are about ones that are stuck.

Can someone give me a brief instructional on what is required to get to the front drums? Does this need to be done to access the wheel cylinder?

Thanks in advance

 

you dont need a puller just a big socket will do. many times youll find your axle nut chewed up when someone used a hammer and chizel instead of a big socket. If your gentle you can get away with that because usually the nuts arnt all that tight. They tighet against eack other to lock themselves in place. After that your hub and drum come off as a unit along with the wheel bearings. You do however need a puller for the rear. You need one that pulls on the lug nuts because a 3 jaw on the ouside of the drum will bend it. Yes its a pain in the butt. Luckily most of these jeeps dont put on enough miles to need servicing very often lol

 

dont forget to remove the 3 set screws in the face of the drum or it will not come off

 

I never needed a puller on the b just a plastic mallet and 2 swift blows on either side of drum

 

you should not need puller on those drums just back-off (star adjuster on newer models) the the pads , and the drum should come off. (may need a few taps with a hammer to loosen rust ).

i don't remember how the old ones loosen or tighten the shoes .







jack

 

Thanks for the tips. We are going to tackle it here in a bit and it is helpful to know what to expect. I'll report back, and if possible post a few pics.

Any ideas on why it might be sticking? Seems like it could be a broken spring or a sticky wheel cylinder, but again, I am pretty novice when it comes to brakes.

 

rust...

 

We got it done. No puller needed, as everyone said. Just unbolt the hub assembly and the drum came off very easily. Turned out it was a cracked shoe that was causing some binding. We got it fixed and she's running good now. I didn't get any photos, but it was pretty straight forward.

 

Sounds like you got off easy there. Usually it goes much deeper and more $$$ and much more time consuming. Good show.