help please rear brake drum

hi, trying to replace the rear shoes on my 2000 freelander and cant get the drum off, handbrake is off and slack. 2 grubscrews removed. i have read all the posts and all the info says to slacken the adjuster off from the backplate by removing the rubber gromet. i found a rounded oblong 1 inch long grommet but no adjuster was inside, it was just an inspection hole i think.
can anyone tell me if theres something i am missing or dont they all have these access holes?...thanks....

Burn it

No - don't burn it - yet. Try again with a different size of screwdriver.

You have found the correct grommet for the adjuster - there is only the one as you describe.

If it hasn't been touched for years you may need to spray some WD type stuff in the hole.

Get a torch as well the adjuster is not directly behind the grommet its kind of up and right a bit.
Lift the spring tang/locking spring up to turn the adjusting sprocket in reverse.
Sounds a bit daft but you will see what I mean.

edge said:

Get a torch as well the adjuster is not directly behind the grommet its kind of up and right a bit.
Lift the spring tang/locking spring up to turn the adjusting sprocket in reverse.
Sounds a bit daft but you will see what I mean.

Click to expand...

many thanks, i will give it another go tomorrow.......

i did use a mirror and couldnt see anything,

What you are looking for is similar to this
Although this is not a photo of a Freelander adjuster its similar, you need to turn the wheel to wind in the adjuster so the shoes will retract. Sometimes the drum is stuck and hitting it carefully by placing a block of wood on the drum and hitting with a hammer.

Just like that

But you need to grovel around under the rear to get a clear view
Axel stands are your friends

take out the rear ash tray and you will see the handbrake adjuster, then try the drums it may give enough clearance to get them off. When you refit the drums adjust the the shoes first and then the handbrake.

thanks, that is what i am looking for, couldnt see it today thru the hole but was expecting it to be close to the hole, someone else said its set back a bit so will have another look tomorrow.

thanks for your help,will have another look tomorrow, had it on stands but still couldnt realy see down the hole..............

Mantamad said:

What you are looking for is similar to this

Although this is not a photo of a Freelander adjuster its similar, you need to turn the wheel to wind in the adjuster so the shoes will retract. Sometimes the drum is stuck and hitting it carefully by placing a block of wood on the drum and hitting with a hammer.

Click to expand...

there is a rubber bung on the front and back of my drum backplate, make sure you got the right one geeza.
gentle taps on front of drum are allowed but not on outsides as it will dint and go non-spherical causing all sorts of rubbing hell.
if its a pain to remove your drum might be grooved which is compounding your issue further!

when you put it back together then you will have to adjust it heres how have car up on axel stands with wheel on get your screw driver and adjust the same toothed adjuster wheel each time spin the wheel (out of gear of course) you will feel the drag on the wheel and as soon as the drakes bite then ajust it back probably two clicks and then if you have undone handbrake then ajust that up to but not to much just about 5-6 click on the handbrake and all should be well do not for get to put you bung back in hope this helps

I for got to say put some wd40 around the middle also get a lrge hammer and tap it around the drum the tap the stub I also get a long prising bar and just gently prise around the drum between that and the bake plate but not to much
hope this helps

thanks for all the help, merry christmas...

Has the drum moved at all? 1 Is it stuck solid? Or 2 does the drum come partly off and then sticks? If 1, then apply some easing oil to the spigot that the drum is centered on, leave for a while then use a lump hammer, firmly tapping around the circumference of the drum to dislodge it from the spigot. If it hasn't been off for a while they get really firmly stuck with corrosion and need a bit of rough treatment to free them up. If 2, it's most certainly sticking on the linings and you need, as said above to slacken off the brake adjusters, as the linings will be catching on the ridge caused by drum wear.
Good luck, they can be pigs to get off.
Andy.

thanks Andy,
havnt tried again yet, too busy entertaining,
the drum is not stuck solid at all it wobbles a little bit but only comes off less than a cm, so its the brake adjuster i need to get to, couldnt see it last time thru the backplate after removing the rubber grommet. but have since picked up a little torch and one of those dentist mirrors so hoping to see the adjuster on my next go.......
thanks everyone for your help.....

Andrew McIntyre said:

Has the drum moved at all? 1 Is it stuck solid? Or 2 does the drum come partly off and then sticks? If 1, then apply some easing oil to the spigot that the drum is centered on, leave for a while then use a lump hammer, firmly tapping around the circumference of the drum to dislodge it from the spigot. If it hasn't been off for a while they get really firmly stuck with corrosion and need a bit of rough treatment to free them up. If 2, it's most certainly sticking on the linings and you need, as said above to slacken off the brake adjusters, as the linings will be catching on the ridge caused by drum wear.
Good luck, they can be pigs to get off.
Andy.

Click to expand...

good news, just managed to change the shoes.
the adjuster was a pig to get to from the back, it wasnt the 1 inch oblong grommet, that was an inspection hole to see thickness of shoes....it was a small round grommet,about 10mm hole, the dental kit which included a small mirror was worth its £1 from poundland. the adjuster wheel was not like the one pictured in the previous thread but same as the one above.only one screwdriver needed to slacken it off....nice big cog to spin...easy once you find it...........
also found that slackening the handbrake to its max helped with disconnecting it from the shoe.......thanks for all your help everyone............

brakes working great and no grinding......happy days

Nice of you to post the outcome, so many people never bother

thats the least i could do after all the help ..............................

Singvogel said:

No - don't burn it - yet. Try again with a different size of screwdriver.

You have found the correct grommet for the adjuster - there is only the one as you describe.

If it hasn't been touched for years you may need to spray some WD type stuff in the hole.

Click to expand...

Glad you got the drums off eventually.

My apologies for mis-directing you, yorky.

I must admit that I have never worked on a 2000 model.

The various ones I've seen have only had the one grommet - I've never seen the little 10mm hole you mention. I must check this out.

Thanks for giving us all the feed-back.

Regards, S.