1999 Civic Hatchback.
I thought I'd inspect the brakes, but I cannot get the drums off.
It seemed pretty simple.
Raise the car.
Chock the front wheels.
Release the parking brake.
Take the drums off.
If they don't pull off, use bolts in the bolt holes.

OK, it didn't want to come of. Used the screw holes and the same thing happened on both sides. One bolt worked great the other not so much. I turned on bolt a few turns, then the other. At some point one of the bolts would strip and not move any more. This happened on both drums.

Now I can't use the bolt holes and the brakes won't come off. Looking at the back, I noticed the the tension pins came out.
Any suggestions?

 

Make sure the parking brake is off and then use the access hole in the rear to turn the star adjust mechanism to loosen the brakes. Then screw bolts into the drum holes.

 

smack them (drums)with a big hammer and hard they will come loose and then just pull off

 

@ RonJ do I need a drum adjusting tool to move the star adjusting mech.?
Or can it be done with a screwdriver?

 

u can use a screw driver to adj them, its not the brakes holding the drums on, its rust trust me smack it with a hammer and shock it loose, as long as the ebrake is down they should come off,

 

When the shoes are dragging the edge of the drum, the drum comes partway off and then gets stuck. That would be helped by loosening the adjuster. If it doesn't budge at all it is rusted to the hub like 94 said. If nothing else works, remove the center cap and the axle nut, take the drum and hub off still stuck to each other, then try to get them apart.

 

In this episode of Man .vs Machine...MAN WINS!

OK, if you've ever seen a video on youtube on how to replace brake drums, everything comes part nice and easy. If you read the service manual, the steps are all laid out nice an neatly. Except for the step that says take part x off which should read...and now a miracle ha...ppens. When ever I work on anything it's less like "This Old House" and more like "Orange County Choppers". Just finished replacing the brake shoes and drums on my 1999 Honda Civic. The brake drums would not come off and some engineer moron did not create brake adjustment holes behind the brake adjusters....so with a lot of effort..the brake drums broke...and victory prevailed. I was able to then move the adjuster through the front of the brake drum.
Photos attached...