Chrysler Repair: rear brake drums: removal on Cirrus, rear brake drums, postal mail

Question
I have a 2000 cirrus with a bad wheel cylinder. I can not remove the rear drake drum after taking off the bearing nut. Is there a trick to this? I have tried pulling it straight out and hitting the edges with a mallot. No luck, is there antthing else holding this in place??

Answer
Hi Steve,
According to my '96 manual, the shoes may have worn a groove in the drum into which they are now riding and that may be why you can't remove it. The trick is to backoff the automatic adjuster so the shoes relax from their imbedded position. On the rear of the brake backing plate you will find a rubber plug on the upper part. Pull that plug and look for a toothed adjuster wheel with its axis of rotation vertical. Use a screwdriver to move the teeth of the adjuster toward the front of the vehicle and do that until the adjuster no longer moves in that manner. The shoes should now be backed off and allow you to remove the drum. Check of course for any screws/nuts around the inner diameter of the hub that might be holding the drum to the hub.
I note that there are about 15 steps for removing and 15 steps for installing new shoes and several useful figures.
If you don't have any such instructions I would recommend that you have them. I can xerox and postal mail the pages to you. Just use the "thank and rate" tab where you will find a space to enter your postal mailing address.
Roland