Removing Drum Brakes/ Finish Painting Rear Axle

I thought I was all finished with the rear axle for now, but then I decided to go ahead and remove the old drum brake components and clean it up some. 

Here are a few pictures I took before I started to take it apart.  I wanted to make sure I had something to go by when I put everything back together.

I started taking the breaks and all the brake components apart.  It was pretty easy.  You basically remove the springs first, then everything else just comes right off.

Everything was removed minus the brake cylinder. (on the right)

The brake cylinder is bolted on by two bolts.  Those bolts came right off with no problems.

Removed.  I'm sure I will replace the break cylinder, but I saved the old ones anyways.

I made sure I bagged all the parts up.

Here is an overview down of the drum brakes

This is just a picture of the other side of the axle before I removed the brakes.

When removing all the parts, i noticed the adjuster cable was rusted in half.  This must be why my emergency brakes did not work that well.  This is also the reason I am replacing all these small parts.  I'm pretty tired of rust.

I taped around the axle to try and keep my paint job protected a little while I try and get everything cleaned up.

I took a wire brush and some sand paper to the side of the axle to remove as much rust as I could.  I then sprayed some Ospho on and let it sit for a few days.

After the Ospho dried, I took this 3M pad and brushed off some of the white buildup that forms after Ospho dries.

After brushing the dust off I cleaned it up with some Simple Green then let it dry.

Instead of spray primer, like I used on the whole axle, I picked up a quart of primer that I can brush on.  I might use this same stuff for the outside of the frame.

I applied the first coat on both sides.  I know this is over doing it a little since the drums and tire will be covering it.  I am mainly doing this to test out the primer and see how it turns out.  I applied two coats of primer overall

After the primer dried for about 48 hours I painted it with this aluminum paint.  Again I used this paint to test it out and see if I like it.  I might use this paint on some other parts.


This is me applying the first coat.

Finished with the paint.  I think it looks pretty good even though it will be all covered up by the drum and the tire.

I decided to use the aluminum paint on the yoke.  I think I might keep it this way.

After finishing with the yoke I sanded down the sides to prep it for its 2nd coat.

Cleaned it up and then let it dry for a while.

Applied second coat.  Finished!

I put the old tires back on the axle so that I could store it this way and use the jack stands for the other axle.

After taking the axle off the jack stands, I noticed some spots that needed touching up.  I sanded those spots down and primed them.

Finished with the first coat on the touch up spots where the jack stands were sitting.

Sanded down the spots to prep for the second coat.

Applied the second coat of paint.  I should be finally done with this axle for now.  Only thing left to do is put new break components on it, which can wait.  (Later post)