Rear brake drums

[Conan]

I was trying to replace my rear shoes and drums on my 98 contour. I am sure that my shoes have cut a nice groove in the drum and that is the reason that I cannot remove the drum itself. I removed the brommet and tried to release the automatic adjustment but to no avail. Is there a trick or am I just missing something ovbious?

[Dec1000]

That adjuster is hard to figure out if you haven't seen it before. Get a big screwdriver and pry between the drum and back plate. Use a hammer to tap on the drum. If it cracks or breaks thats ok since you are replacing them anyway.

[Conan]

I did try the brute force approach but didn't want to bend the back plate. wanna give a shot at explaining that adjuster.
I crawled under so I could get a view of the hole.
I can see the teeth of the adjuster but can't seem to move them enough to get the shoes to retrack enough.

[Conan]

Well I applied some super penatrant and smacked the crap out of it with a rubber mallet again. more our of frustration than anything else. and the damn thing fell off.
Thanks for the help

[FavoriteMystaque]

The "Persuader" wins again! Must have been stuck on the hub. Put some neverseize on the hub face for easier disassembly, next time. I have to lube the pivots in there, my rear brakes creak.