Drum brakes on a 65 Chevy Impala. 

You leave it attached.

Do you have to new cylinders? Look at where the bolt goes in the back. It's usually 1/2" head. Ratchet and socket should work.

I'm not sure what kind of Pontiac you have (always a good idea to share the model info), but the front ends may be incredibly similar across models. On my 67 Camaro, the rear cylinder exchanges were simple as shown in this video. The fronts were an absolute nightmare. On my front end, the cylinder bolts are diagonal from one another (not linear like the rears). Then the brake line angles out toward the rear with the bleeder valve angling out toward the front. The angles are to get around the linkages that hold the spindles in place. To get enough clearance around the wheel cylinder, I removed the hubs. Super easy. Just pop the caps off, remove the cotter pin, spin off the castle nut, and slide the hub off. From there, it's just an absolute mess. No way for me to use a ratchet on either bolt -- there's just no clearance back there, as it's a completely different experience from the rears. Could only get a wrench in there with minimal throw. Took a long time to unthread. Then, the brake line took 2 men and a boy to disconnect and uses a 5/8" wrench. Totally different from the rear lines. The only way that worked for me is to pull the cylinder and brake line forward through the hole ... which requires removing the bleeder valve first! So, yeah, after the two retaining bolts are removed, then I removed the bleeder valve. Pulled the brake line through the hole. Then, kroil + heat gun + channel locks on cylinder + another person wrenching = got the brake line off the cylinder. Then, I reversed the process to reinstall. It makes it smoother if you have a bench grinder with a wire wheel to clean up the bolt threads. Otherwise, they'll fight you every step of the way on the install. For bleeding, it was also super difficult. Because of the weird forward angle of the bleeder, it was not possible to get a flush wrench on the valve. Trying to find an angle to get a bite on the bleeder valve was challenge every single turn of the wrench -- it was an absolute full-body workout. Whoever designed this system needs to be beaten with a wrench. Good luck.

Possibly.

I do that as well. Just didn't think about it for this one.

The notch is in both the shoe, and parking brake lever.

I believe all drum brakes use that bar.

I have an old parts car and it didn't have the bar on front.

That bar is the linkage for the parking brake. Therefore, you'll only find it on the rear (or whichever axle of your car has the parking brake attached).

They are still a pain in the dick to work with though

Should be. Drum brakes have been like this for a very long time.

Thanks. That's fine with me.

What about the front drum? Was wondering how much to tq the castle nut against the bearing to seat the hub and bearing, and then back off a turn or so?

@@kevins.3825 I can't say the exact torque. I always learned to do it y feel. Tighten the nut as you rotate the drum. You will feel it start to resist rotation. From there back it off just enough for a slight resistance. Set the caged nut on it and install cotter pin.

@@JoDaddysGarage yeah that’s the way my grandfather taught me back in the 80’s just wasn’t sure if there was an actual spec. Thanks.

Mitch person love your break video on a1965 s/sport do all have a separater bar on them

No. The reason is that replacing the front cylinders is about 25x more difficult on these old GMs. There are weird angles and the spindle/suspension components render ratchet useless. So, it's a very difficult and tedious job that NOBODY seems to ever show. At least, on my 67 Camaro, the difficulty of the fronts wasn't even comparable to the rears ... the fronts were in a different category altogether.