Help! rear drum on d44 shattered to shambles

I hear a metal on metal slush coming from inside my right rear drum so I just went to take off the drum cover and shambles of metal fall to the ground. I've never done any drum work before so I can't name parts and of course my tools and chilton is @ my house and I'm stuck at my moms. The springs were broken in half and crushed, and a couple other random pieces fell out that looked thrashed. Soo one brake shoe is loosely attatched and the other is dangleing. This is my dd and I have to go to work. Can I drive this without the right rear functioning, and a few pieces missing, will it leak fluid everywear? I've never seen a d44 behind a cherokee @ the pic-n-pull's in sac, rocklin or vacaville but I do remember seing one behind a waggy, can those drums work on my 44?

is the drum itself broken?
it does not sound safe if you've got hardware and a brake shoe just chillin inside there.
its old, one of the springs probably broke and caused all that to happen. get yourself a new set of rear shoes, a spring/hardware kit, and inspect the inside edge of the drum. if its really bad, replace it. if not, get it cut down so its round again.
if you've never done it before, try to tackle the bad side first, but have both rear wheels off so you can look at the good side for refrence (like what spring goes where).

The inside edge of the drum doesn't look so good, it has some pretty deep grooves. If I get this spring/hardware kit I believe there is a special spring loading tool to mount the springs onto the shoes, correct?
Thanks for your help.

Mike1331 said:

Can I drive this without the right rear functioning, and a few pieces missing

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No, fix the brakes and then drive it.

Mike1331 said:

The inside edge of the drum doesn't look so good, it has some pretty deep grooves. If I get this spring/hardware kit I believe there is a special spring loading tool to mount the springs onto the shoes, correct?
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

I use screwdriver and needlenose pliers to pull the pins under the little spring caps. Hard to explain but I push with the needlenose the cap so that the pin goes through, grab the pin and then pull the cap a bit more with a screwdriver and then I rotate the pin.

Mike1331 said:

The inside edge of the drum doesn't look so good, it has some pretty deep grooves. If I get this spring/hardware kit I believe there is a special spring loading tool to mount the springs onto the shoes, correct?
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

The tools make it easy, but you can do it all with a pair of needlenose and some muscle.

okay I'm off to napa for the kit I'll let you know how it goes, I'm gonna go ahead and attempt this with the whole lot of 8 tools my mother has in her tool box, time to improvise.

You can do the rear drum springs with regular pliers. Although locking pliers/vice grips make it easier. It may take a couple of attempts and some swearing, but you can do it with regular tools. The special spring tools for the rear drums are nice, and make the job quicker and easier, but 90% of the people out there just use regular hand tools.

OH, and I 2nd the DON'T DRIVE UNTIL ITS FIXED, if the shoes are just dangling, then the wheel cylinders can pop out, and all your brake fluid will be gone in seconds. Your fronts brakes will still work, but your overall braking will be very degraded. As well, stuff dangling inside the drums is just asking to get wedged and create all sorts of problems and damaged. A rear wheel locking up at highway speed is possible, and going totally out of control could follow.

Wow yeah thanx guys its getting fixed before she takes another lick of tar, I think napa gave me the wrong kit all of the springs look different, I gotta go back and get the right one. I think I waste more time between kragen and napa getting the right parts than I do working on my junk. Well krangen usually fuck's but not napa, i'm suprised.

They might have given you a kit for a Dana 35, in which case the hold-down pins will be too short, or they might have given you a kit for a Chrysler 8.25 axle, which I believe uses different springs.

Or you may only think you have a D44.

Looking back now I realize how petty this situation was, on first site of a open drum in crumbled pieces it can be a little overwhealming but when broken down its quite simple. Something always has to go wrong though otherwise it wouldn't be fun, the e-brake tensioner they sold me was too long, I was able to find a hacksaw in momas garden shed to cut it down. I soon realized I would need a vice, so theeeeeen i took 2 two-by-fours one nailed to the work bench and one pushed against the other with a stock jeep jack wedged against the wall holding the e-brak tensioner in place securely. So now we all now how to make a vice when capitol is limited. You can also use a womens nail filer to file if need-be.
And thats all folks thanks for comen and
Thanks for the help
Mike