I am in the process of tearing my rear brake hub apart, but am having trouble getting started. This summer my vent line got tore off the back of the hub by a stick and I didn't realize until after some pretty serious mudding. Now I have some water in the hub that freezes essentially locking the rear brake until defrosted. I also think the stick may have bent the piece going from where the cables connect into the hub as it does not release when I take off the parking brake and it has to be tapped lightly with a rubber mallet. It may just be sticking because of muck...but that is what I am trying to figure out. I have the service manual (doesn't give socket size in there) and have had the drum apart on my kodiak, so that part doesn't worry me. My question is what size socket do I need to remove the rear axle nut. I have up to 27 mm and that isn't close. I have a cresent wrench with a guage on it and it looks like it is on the line between a 29 and 30mm. I don't want to end up buying the wrong size if I don't have to. Anybody out there wrenched on this before?

 

Got it fixed...was able to use a 1 1/4 socket to get the nut off. Wasn't as muddy as I thought. The cam was froze in the back of the drum. Worked it lose, popped it out, greased it, put it back together, and it works like new. Tried to delete post, but couldn't figure out how!

 

Glad you got it fixed. Was the same size i used also. My brakes still don't work in the back though. I think mine maybe the brake drum though. Seems it might be worn down or either the brake cam. Just put new brakes on it and still nothing works. Hate they used a brake drum on the back, just worthless in my honest opinion.

 

My old Kodiak 400 had the drum brakes in the rear and they were junk. If I tore them apart, cleaned, and adjusted after every ride, they worked...I have better uses of my time so I just took the pads, springs, etc. out altogether so they wouldn't freeze in the winter. I got so used to riding without rear brakes that when I got my King Quad I barely use them. The only thing I use them for is the parking brake. The problem I was having is that when I would unlock the parking brake, the brakes wouldn't release.