Help!! Can't take brake drum off!
 

Hi, what tools and procedures do I need to take the rear brake drum off of my 2010 Honda Fit Sport. I took the wheel off, released my hand brake, screwed in two 8mm x 1.25 bolts, but they seem to get stuck threaded in only halfway?! the drum won't budge and won't come off. Am I doing it wrong? did I miss a step? I was using a hand wrench, did I just not apply enough force? This is for fixing a broken stud. Also, the hub turns when I try to tighten the bolts, should I engage the handbrake instead, but I heard that would make it impossible to remove the drum. Do I need to remove the hub cap first? thanks!

I guess second question: since I don't find any cracks to insert a flat screw driver to remove the hub/spindle cap, what's the best way to get the hub/spindle cap off?

I just removed my rear drums today. The first one wouldn't budge but then the second came off easily and I came back to the first one and easily pulled it off. The parking brake would have to be disengaged totally to be able to remove the drum or else the brake shoes will be pressing on the drum keeping in place.

The service manual says you need to remove the spindle nut first but you don't. There is a rubber plug on the back side of the wheel hub assembly that you can remove and insert a flathead screwdriver so that you can manually adjust the star screw to distance the brake shoes from the drum to make it easier to remove the hub but that shouldn't be necessary unless your brake shoes were out of adjustment (too tight). Keep at it with the bolts and the drum should come off. You can pry a little around the edges of the drum with a screwdriver.

To remove the spindle cap (which I put back on), I used an old chisel and a hammer.

I screwed up and ruined the threads on a stud when swapping out my snow tires. It was a rear one.

Honda charged me $86 to replace all four studs and to exchange the other three wheels.

I had a coffee and read my book while waiting.

I did it! the screws do work, I sprayed some WD40 to clean the two holes and it worked! the chisel + hammer method also worked for taking the spindle cap off. thanks!

So simple once you've done it. I think I can do it in under 15 minutes for the next broken rear wheel stud...

Excellent. Congrats.

So how did you fix the stud? Did you remove then wheel hub?

Yes, I used a sliding t-handle with a 32mm socket and a floorjack extension pipe for extra leverage to remove the spindle nut. 134 ft/lb isn't that much force, I expected it'd be harder to loosen it. "Unlocked" the spindle nut with a hammer and screw driver. Once the nut was off, the hub slid out easily, I used a small hammer to knock out the broken stud, put new stud in. I should have used a wheel nut with washers to draw the new stud in, but forgot to do that, so I hammered it half-way in (which I shouldn't have), then I remembered I could just draw it in with a lug nut and washers...

The car runs fine going 70 mph, no rumbling, I hope the light hammering didn't do any damage. I plan to inspect the spindle nut again after a couple weeks then after a couple months for any loosening, if none then should be good.

I let Walmart do my tire rotation, they crossthreaded two studs... never am I going back to them again. One of the studs is on a front hub, which I could sort of clean with a hex die, but the tip of the stud (about 10% of the length) is all ruined. Since I can still screw a lug nut on, I will just leave it. The front studs would be a pain to fix.

Did you use loctite on the spindle nut? I'm debating whether or not it's worth it. I usually do the opposite: I put antiseize on everything but the spindle nut isn't supposed to move at all obviously... Today I removed the calipers and was cursing like a pirate because of the loctite the previous owner used.

I was going to say, usually a hammer is involved somewhere along the line, I was not disappointed.

No I did not use anything that wasn't already in there, did not clean anything (not worth breathing in the dust), did not lubricate anything. I will just check the spindle nut a couple times after a while. I did think it was kinda too easy tightening it (I used a needle torque wrench), so I did initially try to go another rotation after the lock lines had aligned. It then felt too tight and not right while I was doing that so I stopped. I can't imagine what some of the shops would have done with their impact wrenches.

If I were to do it again, I would only use a small hammer to tap out the old stud. A hammer is also needed to remove the spindle cap with a chisel. Other than that, this should be a hammerless job.

I'd follow Honda manual directions and not ignore them
 

The shop manual says DO NOT use a hand or pneumatic hammer to remove lug studs. Only use a press. Many other manufacturers also echo this advice. Since I have a press that's what I use. I suspect they say don't use hammer because too much hammering (plenty of hammer mechanics out there duh!) could crack the hub which could lead to catastrophic failure and wheel coming off at speed. Bad consequences.