It’s all good, you just said sealed inside of the rotor… I have worked on hundreds of Rangers from most of the years and I could not think of any year that did that… lol
Ah… that was “seaTed” inside the rotor, not “seaLed”. That’s related to why I was confused tho’. I’ve done plenty of front hubs with the bearing sealed inside (so bad bearing = whole new hub). And I’ve done rear drums with the typical tapered roller bearings in them. So when I got to a front rotor with tapered roller bearings it was new to me. Like I said - self-taught and not a mechanic so it was a new on one me. And I’m a bit paranoid/overly cautious about critical parts. And front brakes / rotors are quite a but different from rear brakes / drums.
I just need a neighbor like you dave who I could call and say, “hey…come tell me how this works” whenever I come across a new one on me. No kidding. I’m not a mechanic, but everyone I know calls me for car issues. I’m like “hey, who can I call?”
1 Like
My apologies if that read like I was being critical for using a torque wrench. Certainly not my intention. Torquing by feel is definitely an acquired skill, no one appears to be born with it 
That being said, there are some things I treat like a religion when it comes to torque- any sealed hub bearings, head bolts, ball joints…those will always get the royal treatment 
My favorite clicker wrench had a self-induced meltdown recently. I always back them off to zero after use. So I go to set it and for some reason was turning it the wrong way, past zero. I had to completely disassemble it, figure out what was wrong and put it back together hoping it wasn’t messed up. Then check the calibration against another one. Adding an hour to the repair task.
1 Like
I am glad that you put the inner bearing in the new rotor, yes I have seen that not happen before… lol
And yes, it is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to safety…
No apologies necessary. I was just chatting about it.
I leave my clickers just a tad higher than lowest (e.g. about 30ish if 25 is lowest). But also had mine come undone once. I used that digital fish scale to recalibrate. I checked the fish scale against a bunch of stuff large and small. (e.g. Fitness weights, grocery packages). And yeah - it adds a good hour or more.
1 Like
Seems like it could work if a ridge on the drum was the problem and the shoes wouldn’t retract fully for some reason. It would certainly disconnect the shoes from the backing plate, but the springs may still hold them more or less in place. Definitely worth a try if all else fails.
For perspective on the robustness of drum brake parts, no obvious ridges on any of the drums of my 50 year old truck, but I have experienced a couple of broken brake springs. the only diy’er grief I’ve experienced in removing a drum was when it was rust-stuck to the hub. Normally they just pull right off after the shoes are retracted.
Easy to overcome that, I’ve done that with the drum off.
Just saying that he/she/it can’t get the drum off so no access to cut anything off inside the drum. The other side came off so not an issue with the parking brake.
I think the video and other comments pretty clearly pointed out what needs to be done and not much more to say. Taking it to a shop with one side done and the other not might be hard.
I wonder why most brake drums don’t provide a threaded hole so you can push the drum off using a bolt? Maybe the problem is that there is nothing for the bolt to push against?
From the outside of the backing plate, you can see the heads of the 2 posts that hold the shoes against the inside of the backing plate with some spring tension. You would cut/grind/chisel those heads off.
Yeah that might work.
Not just might, (said in the voice of the old Cajun chef) I guarantee it!
The whole mess comes off rather easily actually.
Learned that many years ago.
Similar revelation as when I decided to cut the rotors off my Camry after struggling in vain for hours to remove them. Surprisingly, they cut like butter and I would never struggle with rotors again after that. BTW, those jack screws stripped out in seconds at the very start of the exercise. IMHO those only work on fairly pristine parts. The drum thickness is so thin, there’s only a few threads of engagement to work against…there are better ways to use bolts and nuts from behind on the caliper bracket but after cutting them off, I likely will just go that route immediately next time (assuming unlucky enough to have a next time)…
2 Likes
My 1999 Honda Civic’s rear drums have two threaded holes opposite one another. Putting bolts in and alternately tightening them, they push against the round plate that holds the wheel mounting studs. The drum comes off easily. Some times I have had to use bolts, other times not.
George’s Corolla has bolt holes in the drums to push the drum off the hub. Many vehicles have those.
I wonder if OP’s drum has them?
I don’t believe I’ve yet seen those threaded holes on GMC truck brake drums
No, but it wouldn’t help anyway. The drum is caught on the shoes, not on the hub.
3 Likes
Have not even looked at the bearings on my boat trailer, only an 86 but did pump up the bearing buddies every few years. Sold last year.
Off topic but did the storms miss you? Looked fairly wide spread and severe.
1 Like
We are OK, our other house was VERY close to major damage were my daughter lives at right now and all my tools and RR are still at… TN is the #1 state for night time Tornados so we pay close attention… and anytime it is warmer than normal and a storm comes in, we pay close attention… Our daughter still has no power… But lots of damage and life’s lost very close to my area… I can drive to the the street in Madison where it took peoples life’s in under 10 minutes on the back roads and about 12 minutes back roads to the our other house… So yeah a very scary and deadly storm last night… it hit in Madison/Hendersonville right as the Sun went down… Clarksville hit earlier when the Son was still up… My brother lives in Springfield and it was hit hard also…
I have family in Clarksville and a house in Hendersonville and friends in Madison, still waiting to hear from my friend that lives very close to the Madison damaged area…The Tornados and storms was very wide spread with damage in a lot more areas across middle TN…
The damage shown in the pics in the link in H’ville are VERY close to our house and some of it is tenths of a mile away, easy walking distance, and the ones shown in Madison are very close to my friend that I am still waiting to hear back from… …
1 Like