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MG MGA - Stuck Brake Drum Here's an Way

Guys

One of the front brlae drums on my car was STUCK. As in pry bars, hammers of various sizes, etc and NO movement at all. Even a puller with no budge. Unable to turn wheel and get to the rachet to losen.

Take the bolts out of the brake cylinders. Tape them through the baking blate. The drum will come off with the shoes, springs, cylinders etc. Once off easy to get the stuff losend and removed.
GD Glenn

Almost sounds like a collapsed brake hose or an overtightened brake adjuster. Or perhaps a good deal of rust. Had you tried to remove the hose to relieve any hydraulic pressure? Have you determined why the drum resisted coming off?
Steve K

If you only wanted to release a build up of pressure, just opening the bleed nipple ought to suffice. If you're going to push the whole assembly through, then you will need to disconnect the hoses anyway.
Dan Smithers

The previous owner had already removed the bleed screw and cut the line in two pieces. When I went to pick up the car in November the right front wheel was stuck. We couldn’t get it move with anything. We had to wench it up onto the trailer and even that wouldn’t turn the wheel. It just skidded down the drive way and up onto the trailer. Now that’s stuck. I doubt that turning the adjuster would have done anything even if we could have gotten to it.
I tried to pull it off with a puller no luck. This thing hadn’t turned in years. By the way there was no fluid in the braking system any where. So there was no pressure.

So if you take the bolts that go through the baking plate out of the cylinders (2 each), you can tap the whole thing off. Drums with pads molded to them, springs, cylinders, adjusters everything. Then I was able to take a pry bar and pry the shoes off the drums. I know technically the shoes should be able to rust to the drums but it was like they had.

Sorry about the spelling in the first post. Too much Guinness I guess.
GD Glenn

Glenn. I had heard rumors that wenches were still used to supply manual labor in the South, but had assumed that such was just rumor. Quite a number of years ago, a local "outdoor writer" suggested that taking along a wench was an excellent idea while traveling in the desert. The majority of the letters to the editor, over the next few weeks, disagreed and felt that the wench was best left back at home.

Glad you got the problem sorted in a quite unique way. Thanks for sharing both tips with us.

Les
Les Bengtson

One redeeming factor about the South in that many of wenchs here are very atractive.
GD Glenn

This thread was discussed between 01/03/2008 and 04/03/2008

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