55960 getting brake shoes off?

So the I&T manual told me to remove all the springs and the anchor plate retaining clips. Then it says to lift the shoes up and off?? It doesn't look like that can work as the shoes are captured. It appears that the anchor plate needs to come off first and it appears to be held by nuts on studs going into the axle housing. It looks like you need a special offset wrench to get them off. Am I correct on this or am I missing something?

If don't have blue wrench use some type penentrating fluid then tap back and forth till come out. Pins stuck in bushings.

It looks like he already used the blue wrench getting wheel off.

Shaun, not sure what you're trying to say? Are you saying the Anchor pins should just slide out? There's not much to grab on with the thin outer lip. I can try that in the morning if someone confirms that this is correct.

Also I have no idea what "Blue Wrench" is? I got the drums off by backing off the adjuster wheel and using a heavy duty OTC puller, and tapping and striking on the back edge of the drum.

Blue wrench is oxy-acetylene torch. Some stuff will not move unless heated real hot!

If that's the same set up that is on a general purpose, and common to many models, you just need to drive those anchor pins out. They do get seized and there's not a lot of room to get a good swing to do that from the back. Last total brake job I did, I was able to get them out, but the top of the slot in each peeled off, I had ordered new ones anyway, might have saved one or 2 but some heat and elbow grease is what got them out. I put a thin coat of anti-seize on the new ones. That should be all that holds them, pad linings look good on what can be seen, but maybe worn further towards the middle?

Somebody had changed that side before. The other side(left side) has less than 1./16th of pad left. For tight turns I tend to use the left more, so the previous owner probably did too.

So on the anchor pins, you strike them on the back side(back of backing plate) to drive them to the outside of the tractor?

If I recall yes, but they'll go either way, and should loosen up, but that thin part of the groove on the end, is apt to peel off. I remember some of mine were seized, but I did save one or 2 of them as well, did not peel that end off etc.

Thanks Bill. Going to head out and try it this morning. Maybe I'll get lucky.

I tried on one side today. I partially reinstalled the clip to have something to pry on. I did not put too much pressure that I would damage the thin head, but enough to see if it was free and would move. No dice. Then I tried hitting the backside of the pin with a punch hammer with a few sharp whacks to see if it would move. No dice. How did service guys do this? There had to be a tool?

Thinking back, mine were a bit tough to free up, and the fact that the thin part of that groove on the end, peeled off, I'm pretty sure I drove them out from the side facing you. (front) and was glad I had ordered complete new parts for this brake job, though I did save one or 2 of them, those must not have been seized. I believe I had more photos of this, but given one PC years back lost a sector in the hard drive and some other nonsense, I lost most photos from that year '04.

Heat may help break the bond, expand the material, too bad you could not apply some dry ice to the end of these to shrink the pin a little LOL !

After watching a youtube video, it looks like what might be holding the pin is the retainer bracket itself. It said to heat the retainer bracket around the pin to expand it, but don't heat the pin, so that's next.

Well tonight I figured out how to get the pins out. They were frozen into the backing plate. No hammer would do it. No penetrating lube would do it. So I got out the pneumatic hammer. The lower pin that was mostly exposed, I started by using a punch with the pneumatic hammer. I couldn't get it to move and it was really hard getting a decent hit without the punch moving off. So I took the pneumatic hammer and directly hit the back of the pin the hammer at a 45 degree angle to the pin. With some real solid repeated hits it broke free. On the same one on the other side I used the pneumatic on the front side a little bit to try to break it free. I got it to move a little, then I went back to the back side and was able to pneumatic hammer it out.
On the pin that was not exposed, I used a Snap-On pry bar, to get the tip on the back of the pin, pushing forward I then used the pneumatic hammer to strike the pry bar. It wasn't easy and didn't come right away, but after working it for awhile, they finally came(and shot out across the room).

It was really hard holding to tools and taking this pic with the other hand.




Not a fun job, but after I got one side done tonight, I didn't want to go in til I had them all done so I would have to mess with it tomorrow.

Good deal, and its good you posted some shots, seems the drop housings on those models don't leave much room either, compared to the GP model, but there's enough space to do what you did to get them out. Amazing that with the backing plate thickness, it sure as heck don't take much to seize these pins in place. When I coated mind with anti-seize, most pushed off, press kind of fit almost, but there has to be some residue and I'd think that would make all the difference if they had to come out again. Persistence paid off here !

Thanks Bill NY. Although the backing plate itself is really thin, there is a reinforcement bracket spot welded to it. It is this reinforcement bracket that seized onto the pins. It looks like the reinforcement bracket is about .150 inches thick. The pins can be a loose fit. I'm going to cleanup the holes by running a sanding drum from a dremel around those holes and wire wheel the pins before applying anti seize or moly grease.

Finally got the brakes back together and adjusted.

Since the little clips go on the outboard end of the pins, I would assume that they were designed to keep the pins from sliding out through the backing plate toward the center of the tractor if they got loose, so that's the direction I would try to drive them out, but they do look straight with no taper so they should be able to come out in either direction, I guess the drum, when it's in place, would keep them from sliding out the other way.

Sean, that's actually not the case. The pins come out to the outside. Maybe you didn't ready the whole thread where I figured out how to get them out? The clips actually have a hook on top that goes over the backside of this bracket so they can't move either way.