After five years of my 64' F-100 sitting idle, I have a new engine installed and the clutch working. The wheels have been frozen solid for at least 3 years. Any tips on getting them turning?

 

See if you can back the adjusters off in the drums, then maybe drag the truck on a dirt road . You may have to jack it up and beat on the drums to "shock" the rust free. Check the travel in the master cyl, to make sure it's not stuck.

Barry

 

Once you have backed off the shoes, push the truck backwards as well as forwards to break them free. They are designed to rotate when they contact the reverse moving drum.
Although this may sound contradictory, it may help loosen everything up if they are stuck to the drums.
Good luck!

 

Something just doesent sound right. A vehicle sitting for a mere 5 years should not have frozen up wheels. Especially all four. Really the only way I can see that happening would be if the brakes were somehow applied the whole time and the wheel cylinders rusted/corroded in place. Still I can't make sense out of your problem. Man, wheel bearings and axle bearings aint gonna freeze up in 5 years. Thats what everything is turning on. Greasy, packed, roller bearings. You could be parked under water for 5 years and that stuff would likely turn. This has to be a hydraulic issue.

Now, some kind folks are giving the good advice of backing off the adjusters. That's really all you can do because the shoes have to be holding the drums in place. That is where Barry may have hit the nail on the head. The only way all four adjusters needed backing off would be if the Master Cylinder was frozen while applied. If someone pushed the brake pedal several years ago and the MC piston stuck then the wheel cylinders may likely be stuck by now. There is the possibility that only the master cylinder is stuck, so I would try opening the bleeders before I did anything at all. Think about it. All other remedys and ideas which = work will be overkill if all you needed to do was relieve hydraulic pressure.

I'm still scratching my head thinking about someone doing an engine install without EVER moving the vehicle. Are you dragging the thing around?

 

this is very possible and does happen the metal in the shoes rusts onto the metal drum. you need to back the adjusters off remove the drums and clean everyhting with brake cleaner.

 

I agree with Gashog & Greg both,

Scintered metallic shoes can rust to brake drums over time, especially if a vehicle is parked over grass or raw dirt where corrosive gasses are generated & eminate from. I would also suspect if there is high ambient humidity, or frequent temp changes shoes with scintered iron content would also get stuck. Remember, Fe 03 is larger than the basic metal it corroded to turn it into an oxide in the 1st place.

I have seen cases where a field parked vehicle required that I all but cut the backing plates up so I was able to get to wheels & brakes enough to get them to turn again.

Although having said that, and being familiar with Occams' Razor, I agree with Greg the best place to start is the easiest or basic solution for any problem 1st. I also have a hard time understanding how hard it was to replace whatever it is that got replaced, and to get the clutch working again with wheels frozen, unless the thing he replaced was the 12v power supply or Bat- tery.

To resolve the problem I would do following things until I found out for sure what's up.

I'd open a bleeder to see if M-Cyl worked at all. If So then I'd open all and see if I could move the shoes to break them loose enough to get a wheel to turn.

Failing that I'd cut hold down retainers from back of backing plate, unbolt the wheel cylinder from line & backing plate, then do what it took to pull a drum off to see what was up. I'd probably do a front 1st because once I pull spindle nut & outer bearing off I can get a better grip on drum and do less damage removing it.

Of course I'd have raised & securely supported vehicle, and yanked a wheel 1st.

FBp

 

I thought it was Ockam's Razor.
Perhaps it was Ockham's Razor?
Did he even shave???

 

HiYa BP
Back from "Sewards Folly" are ya? Pic looks like you were in a time warp and they look like my sort of folks by the way they shave, huh?

AND ------> Nope! It's "CC", I'm Positive.

He, Sir William of Occam, was from the village of Occam In England when he wrote that posit. And in typical hyperbolic Brit fashion extrapolated the theory "Less is More" into a pseudo shakespearian soliloquy. Unlike my Uncle Sam who streamlined the same theory into the well known principle KISS . . .

& I'm the one who never shaves ROTFLMAO

FBp

 

Uh-OH!
His philosophical construct is correctly known as the Law of Parsimony.
Actually, it is Ockham, per the original spelling.
Modern US English spelling is Occam (CC as in Custom Cab. Right on!! -You KNEW I could shoehorn a Ford truck in there somehow right?! ).
Modern British spelling is Ockham.
Brits tend to drop the "h" sound, while Americans tend to pronounce it, hence the variation in spelling.
Occasionally seen as Ockam, more rarely as Ocam.

Speaking of razors, I am looking at a possible new job, so I'll wait to grow a re-enactor's beard. I'm-a sure thinking about it, though!

 

I picked up a 65 Merc that had been sitting in a ranchers field for a few years and the brakes were working, but the wheels would not turn. The drums had a grove that fit over the backing plate and that was where the rust build up was on all 4 drums.

 

Thanks a half-ton, guys. I knew I'd get alot of help here on this one. I'll try the easiest suggestions, first, and work my way through. Thanks.

GregTruck: Thanks for noting my stationary truck engine swap achievement. It is, perhaps, the crowning engineering achievement of my life. It was on the day that I started the engine swap that I discovered the frozen wheels. Had to quickly implement "Plan B". Not only was the truck immoveable, but it was sitting on the bare ground on a slight front-to-back incline. And the ground was hard and a little rough. I had to use a come-along to maneuver the engine hoist up and down the slight incline on plywood mats to get the engines in and out of the truck and a second pickup to manever between trees to deliver and remove the engines, perched on the tailgate, to and from the hoist. I dream of a garage.

 

I can sympathize with that. I put myself through grad school as a mechanic with my own "shop" - but lest you think of a nice garage, it was 2x4s with corrugated fiberglass for a roof. Floor was gravel, light was a salvaged bent up street light nailed to the tree, and the tree branch was my engine hoist for the come-along.
I had a 110 volt socket powered by a set of wires run right into the back of the outdoor circuit breaker box, and grounded to the frame of our mobile home. I would get a slight buzzzzzzz everytime I used a power drill with a metal housing.
Hang in there, I still don't have a garage 25 years later!

 

John da picker, I bet you had to walk 10 miles to school everyday in 3 ft of snow up hill both ways too, huh??? lmao

John

 

"Whatta you got that sticks or squeaks?" "...Sticks or squeaks?"

WD-40 to the rescue. Friday, I took a can of that miraculous potion and aimed the handy little red straw between the backing-plate and the drum and soaked those mothers good. After a brief few minutes, I gingerly whacked the rim of the drum with a hammer and pryed the edges with a screwdriver and those babies came off. All four wheels are now spinning free. Now I just gotta adjust the shifter linkage and install a new voltage regulator and I'll be ready to pull my little shortie outta the ruts that it has sank into over these past five years.

Thanks for all the help, gentlemen.