I decided I better check the rear brakes on my Mother's 97 Plymouth Neon. It's a four door automatic with front disk and rear drums. It's already had the front brakes done once and has about 90,000 miles on it.
Every other set of drum brakes I've worked on all you have to do is jack the car up, pull the wheel off, and bang on the drum a few times to break the rust bond it forms with the wheel hub over time. Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth decided to make everyone else's live difficult. The rear bearing is pressed into the drum and then it slides over the rear axle. So, to remove the drum you have to get the steel protective cap off the drum using a thin bladed flat blade screwdriver to pry it away. Once it's off there is a 1 3/16" lock-nut holding the drum to the axle. Once you remove that nut you can probably slide the drum off just by wiggling the drum around with two hands. It worries me that the only thing holding the entire wheel on the car is this nut and it doesn't even have a cotter pin for extra safety.
I knew there was a reason I hated Dodge cars and trucks.
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