Rear drums on '71 K20

[Murphy IRE]

I have a floating axle. I have removed the axle shaft flange and now i'm trying to remove the outer lock ring. I bought a Napa spindle wrench (#2770) but it's not great. Any tricks to get it off, so that I can remove the drums. I trying to replace the wheel cylinders and get the drums turned.

[independentcustoms]

That's strange, I took my C20 apart last night to do wheel cylinders! It's the first time I've worked on these heavier rear ends, I was expecting to pull the wheel off and slide off the drums. Not so much.

Anyway, I obviously didn't have the wrench needed, since I wasn't expecting that, but I simply used a hammer and a punch. Maybe it's not the recomended way, but worked fine for me.

[Eichorst69]

Hammer and punch works fine!

[haminator]

Originally Posted by Murphy IRE

I have a floating axle. I have removed the axle shaft flange and now i'm trying to remove the outer lock ring. I bought a Napa spindle wrench (#2770) but it's not great. Any tricks to get it off, so that I can remove the drums. I trying to replace the wheel cylinders and get the drums turned.

There a couple different styles. One has nuts that look like huge nuts, they have a lock ring between the two with tabs that fold over the nuts. You will have to straighten th tabs before removing the nuts. Another style has nuts that have notches in them, you use a 4 wheel drive socket with the correct number of tangs to fit the notches. This style generally has a sort of snap ring on the spindle. Very easy to remove, then remove the square cut key in the spindle then remove the nuts. There are probibly other that would some variation of these. If you have a Dana axle the drums are removable by removing two slotted screws. The "corporate" axle you have to remove the hubs. Beware when getting new drums for the "corporate" axle, make sure they have adjustment holes in them. Hope this helps.

[haminator]

Originally Posted by Murphy IRE

I have a floating axle. I have removed the axle shaft flange and now i'm trying to remove the outer lock ring. I bought a Napa spindle wrench (#2770) but it's not great. Any tricks to get it off, so that I can remove the drums. I trying to replace the wheel cylinders and get the drums turned.

I remembered something else. I have learned that brake size is normally determined by the axle not the suspension style as most parts books dictate. For example most Chevys are coil spring "corporate" rear ends and GMC's are leaf pring Dana 60 rear ends. My C-20 Chevy has leaf springs and a "corporate" rear, it uses "coil spring" sized brakes since that rear end in normally used for a coil spring application. My buddy's C-20 Chevy also has leaf springs but has a Dana rear end and uses the brake size dictated by leaf springs. I sure there are other variations but I beleive this is the general rule. Confused yet?