Long story short, my drums were seized onto the hub and had to be pryed off. The backing plates are pretty tore up because of this. Does changing them require removing and replacing the bearings and toothed wheel? This all started as a simple axle seal job....

 

You might not need to replace the bearings but they do need to come off to replace the backing plate. Then it does depend just what rear axle your working on??

You need to pull the axle out of the housing press the bearing off change the backing plate and reinstall do you want to install new bearings while there out.


Some people will others will reuse the old ones if they are still in good shape. Me I would put new ones on.