What is the best way to remove the drum cover? I need to inspect my rear brakes. Thanks

 

Release the parking break and pull it off?

 

Yep. Be sure the parking brake is off. Also if the shoes are worn and have grooved the drum, you may have to back the shoes away from the drum. Do this by pulling off the small slot shaped rubber plug on the backing plate of the axle (basically the back side of the axle. There's a star wheel inside that you can spin to loosen the tension on the brake shoes. Finally, sometimes the drum rusts to the axle shaft. To pop it free there are some threaded holes in the drum where you can screw in some metric bolts and pop it free. Sometimes tapping with a mallet helps.

 

release e brake....knock on it with a hammer a few times and you should be able to get it off. Another way is to use two bolts and run thme into the two smaller holes on the face of the drum cover. crank on them back and forth...this should push the drum away from the backing plate

edit: yep....what steve said....man, he got it across way better than I did sorry

 

Also, most drums have a set of counter sunk screws holding them to the axle. They can often be difficult to remove because of rust.

 

never seen conter sunk screws on drums, rotors yes. there is a first time for everything i guess

 

I can't say for sure that Toyota uses them, but I know some manufacturers have them. I have also seen some use a spring clip washer over a lug stud to keep the drum in place when the wheel is removed.

 

As said, make sure the e-brake is released, then hti the crap out of it with a rubber hammer...also use a large flat-head screwdriver to pry it (easily, but firmly).

 

Often the drums can be simply pulled off by hand. But when they can't, Toyota built in a system for their removal.

If you look at the face of the drums, you will see two threaded holes on opposite sides of the center that look like they are doing nothing. They go all the way through the drums. Crank properly threaded bolts into both of those holes and they will push against the end of the axle and force the drum off evenly and painlessly.

Other than old age or possibly a dragging brake shoe, there is nothing holding the drum on.

 

mine were really grooved out, so i had to back the adjusters all the way out. it's a little tricky because you need to use 1 screwdriver to push in the locking clip(this keeps the adjuster from loosening in normal use) and one to spin the adjuster.

 

Thanks guys, I did have the e-brake on because I was only removing one wheel at a time, will try again.

 

If they are grooved as Kyle mentioned, using the threaded holes to pull the drum off won't work-unless maybe the brake shoes are very loose to begin with. Your only option is to do as he said and back the brake shoe off the drum using the star adjuster. I had to do that when I changed the brakes on my car.

I bought a brake spoon to do this, and it is much better than trying to use a screwdriver because of the way the spoon is shaped.