01 odyssey rear drums

I was helping my neighbor do his brakes today, replaced the front pads fine
but didn't get to the back drums. I own a jeep not a honda, and on my jeep
the rear drum will slide off easily and you can get to the internals fine.
On this odyssey the rear drum wouldn't come off easily. I didn't get it off
because I know prying on the back plate will get you in big trouble. I did
notice a plug on the back panel for adjusting the brakes with a brake
adjusting tool. The van has 61000 miles on it. He's gonna take it easy on
it for now until I get some info on this.

I know that if the drum is too tight on my jeep to back it off with the
brake tool via the small plugged hole on the backplate and it will slide
right off. I know that the procedures for my vehicle say to adjust the
drums until they are tight and can't turn, then back off a little bit until
they do turn.

Are the rear drums self-adjustable? On my vehicle you can go forward, make
a complete stop, go backwards, make a complete stop, and repeat about 8-10
times and they self adjust. Are the rear drums the same way for this
vehicle?

I would really like to take off the drum cover to see how bad the drum pads
are in case they need replacing. Thanks in advance for any help you can
offer.

Troy

 

first, it's probably not a priority - honda drum brakes last a /long/
time. often well over 100k.

regarding drum removal, should come right off unless you have a severely
grooved drum or the drum is rusted to the hub. for the rust, there
should be some holes that can be used to force it off by screwing in a bolt.

can't do that on the honda afaik. try backing off the emergency brake &
see if that works. they usually just come right off once the rust seal
is broken.

the drums are self-adjusting, but they use normal application pressure
to turn a screw, none of that wierd g.m. reversing crap.

it's just the drum.

disks have brake pads, drums have brake shoes.

 

Ah cool, the neighbor will be glad to hear that the rear shoes last so long.
Ya sorry I forgot they are shoes in the back, not drum pads, lol. I didn't
eat much yesterday so my brain was slightly retarded. And ya there are two
little holes I saw, for the screw trick. Thanks for the info, I just wasnt
wanting to do anything drastic with my neighbor's van cuz if I broke
something, you know. I'm sure its rusted on now that you mention it.
Thanks again!

Troy