Remove Stuck Brake Drum and Rear Brake Inspection - K2500 Suburban Pulling When Braking Hard Part 1 

Never thought I'd see somebody smiling whilst whacking the brake drums. Beat the leftism out of that drum! Love your vids. Mike from Ireland

Thank you for the tip on where to hit the drum to get it to pop off. Worked like a charm

Note: Make sure you know which rear axle you have on your C/K2500, before attempting disassembly. This process is not how the drums come off, if your Suburban/Yukon, or Silverado/Sierra has the full-floating GM 14-Bolt. Taking a 14-bolt drum brake assembly apart is much more involved, and requires some special tools, and involves pulling the axles and manhandling a 75 lb brake drum with an internal axle bearing and seal that you don't want to mess up.

Glad you got it worked out! Such a great multipurpose vehicle. Gotta keep that beast on the road!

I have had several OBS 88 thru 2000 GMC/Chevy trucks in my snow plow fleet over the years, 1 truck in particular, a 1999 K2500 4x4 gave us similar problems...we tried everything to no avail. Turns out what happened was we had replaced just 1 front caliper and kept the other existing front caliper, lesson learned was change out calipers as a set, replace both at the same time. And we noticed that the caliper mount bolts had a slightly shorter tapper on the "shouldered area" on the new caliper. So the mixed set had a slight difference in the slide action of the calipers on initial braking and were not sync'd causing a quick pull to the left and a weird correction type feel back to the right as the vehicle slowed to a stop. Also look at the rubber hoses, the steel braid inside can rust after the rubber cracks from age, and swell the hoses down to nothing and will give a pull to either side.

Keep the axel cool. Heat drum hot expansion .part #2 pm in cycle. Once a year pull drums and add a tiny bit of TLC. Goes a long way. In PM Maintenance. #3 cable rust is a pinch point . Inspect cable for rust. My corvair had a cable rust problem. That is to say that at the point where they split up it rusted . just tight enoufgh to cause pulling to one side.

The Great White Buffalo 😅, that's a great name for your SUV!!!

OK so where's Part 2 ?

I was expecting a broken spring myself. So I'll get out the "shotgun"! Check your self adjusters and confirm they are working correctly. Check your Emergency Brake operation with the drums off as well. I don't know if the Proportioning Valve being bad/flaky can cause this....maybe. I don't know enough about ABS to be 100% sure. Is this an OBD2 Equipped? If it is you should be able to Code Read for why the ABS light is being lit with a decent reader. Good Luck! look forward to hearing what it is.

Most times when removing drums it helps to back the adjustment wheel to retract the shoes from the drum. Check the hydraulic wheel cylinders by moving the rubber covers back to check for leakage. Also when removing drums sometimes heat between the wheel studs helps and giving a few raps with a hammer in the same spot will break it loose. Also in my many years of experience in both automotive and heavy truck and trailer repair I've never experienced a collapsed brake hose acting like a check valve but I used to hear that it could occur. Just a few weak bulging lines in my experience. Good video

I found on my 96 k2500 someone had put 2.5 inch brake shoes but it needed the3.5 inch turns out there several brake combinations for the 3/4 tons my rig shook bad when the brakes heated up put in the right shoes smooth as glass now.

Back in the 50s when I worked on my brakes I would back off the adjustment for the shoes so I agree with Dan Patch on that issue. Doesn't look like a leak issue. Are the shoes wearing about the same? I don't know enough about ABS systems to comment much. But if they regulate the pressure to the wheels maybe that is the problem. Just be very careful. I like to use cement blocks in addition to jack stands just to be extra safe. Actually I don't do brakes any more i am to old and weak and back says no. Looking forward to part 2.

Next time put a ratchet strap around your brake shoes when you're testing to see if they're working so you don't worry about blowing the wheel cylinder

So what was the fix for the brake problem?

Why this suburban doesn't have a full floating axle ?

maybe a burr on the backing plate

Why is it none of the RU-vid videos show backing off the brakes so "banging" on the drum isn't necessary ?

mines full of black dust