I am needing to inspect and maybe replace my rear brakes on my '04 Bruin 350 4x2. I have never had the rear tire off let alone the brakes. All the bolts came off easy but the drum wont budge and I don't want to force it. Am I missing something?

I also noticed that the brake lever at the back of the drum is real stiff. Of course the cables are disconnected at the back...but it takes a few taps with a hammer to move the lever back and forth.

Got any ideas for me? Thanks!

 

i would release the tension on the parking brake and brake cable springs on the backside, then get a rubber mallet and start banging on the drum. the rubber wont hurt any part under there, so smack away.

make sure you have the trans in neutral, with both rear wheels off the ground and turn the drum as your hitting it with the hammer. if the drum seal has gone bad, it has probably let dirt and who knows what inside the drum. that happened to my old 99 big bear, and it took me quite a time to remove the drum. about 15 minutes i guess.

now replacing the drum seal? that is another story for another thread...................

 

after you get the drum off you can remove the rear lever and take out that small shaft. the aluminum housing oxidizes and that shaft will rust. clean both and put a small amount of grease on the shaft before putting back together.

 

Is there a way to manually adjust the brakes? I remember once a car that had ground into the drum and it could not be removed until the shoes were adjusted in.

 

once you have all cables and rod loose pressure is taken off the shoes. you sure don't want to break that drum, it's around 200 bucks. the best way i've found to get that drum off is first, try to be patient. i know that's hard sometimes. put a lot of penetrating oil on the axle at the drum splines, let it soak. i usually use two big screwdrivers and put them one on each side and put slight pressure on each side with a back and forth motion. hope this helps.

 

Not to say you're wrong bigjoohnMS but i've rebuilt the drum brakes on 2 different brand quads (86' Honda TRX350FM Foreman 4x4 , 93' Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ ) and on both these quads i tried everything that has been mentioned and even after soaking with PB Baster , Liquid Wrench and a few other brands ; plus adjusting the brake shoes for over a week with no luck.
And also tried the two screwdrivers as well after seeing how easy it would be to damage the drum and brake backing plates , i finally had to resort to using the big rubber mallet to get them off ; i destroyed 1 cheap make ( china import) mallet had to go to Sears to get a good made in the USA heavy duty mallet it took about 5 minutes to remove all 3 drums on Suzuki and another 3 minutes on the Honda .

I saw right away that it would be easier to damage the drums and backing plates with the screw driver's , you just have to Bang on them drums like chimpanese ( Money For Nottin' on you MTV ) lol ; believe me they will come off without damage with the Rubber Mallet !

Good luck with the project , williebee...........

 

williebee, been there and done that too. my post is only another suggestion if beating didn't work right off. please note i said to use slight pressure. i wasn't trying to cause someone to tear their stuff up.

 

hi i am helping my dad work on a Kawasaki Bayou 220 and we got the brakes to eventually go on but they were stiff and once we got them on they wont come off because the brake pads are brand new. We did not have the parking brake on because we took it off. Can someone help me please before something on it gets broken.
Thanks