I was working on replacing the REAR pads and rotors on my neighbor's '00 Blazer LT 4x4 earlier tonight when I encountered a problem. I could not remove the emergency brake cable from the little clip behind the hub(though it moves and almost comes off), and I could not get the rotor off by pulling, however, I did not put the gear in neutral and spin the hub and bang on the back of it because it was late.

I found this thread - https://blazerforum.com/m_29078/tm.htm , but it was not of much help. To top things off, R&S Strauss gave me the wrong rotor. The width of the drum itself on the stock rotor is 3", and the one they sold me is 2" wide. I am going back tomorrow and getting the proper rotors, however, I still have to get the stock one off. Please advise ASAP so I can get this done tomorrow.

 

You don't need to remove the brake cable from the actuator lever (clip).
The rotor may be hung up un the park brake shoe by a ridge worn on the inside. If you have slack in the park brake cable, push the actuator lever back ( with a screwdriver) in the opposite direction that the cable pulls it when the park brake is applied. If that doesn't work, there should be a round hole ( possibly covered with a rubber plug) on the lower inside part of the hub. Inside there is a star wheel adjuster, just like on drum brakes, and you can back off the adjustment of the park brake shoes using 2 screwdrivers. One to disengage the locking spring clip and the other to turn the star wheel adjuster.
If it still wont come off and the rotor spins free ( park brake not dragging) then hit the front of the rotor with a hammer to break it free from possible rust. (That shouldn't be a problem if you are already planning on replacing the rotors.
Hope this helps, let us know.

There may be an access hole for the park brake adjustment in the front of the rotor...I don't recall.

 

It turns out there's no adjuster for the drum parking brake that is accessible when the rotor is on. I couldn't get the rotors off, and I found out from 2 different mechanics that they have to be either banged off with a heavy hammer or cracked then removed. They also said replacing the drum brake shoes is often necessary after that is done. Well anyway, I gave up on it after banging on it with a regular hammer for over an hour with no success so my neighbor is taking it to a shop. Just wanted to update and give a heads up to anyone who runs into this problem.

 

hmmmm or rather arrrrggggggg

To get the disc off...
PB Blaster- spray it in every lug hole and rotate.
Then take a ballpeen hammer and beat between the studs. What happens is rust bonds the rotor to the hub face. Only way your going to get the rotor off is to beat it off, and the best place to beat it off is the face between the studs with the peen end of the hammer. Sometimes it takes a hell of a hard blow, but she will come off.

For future reference.

 

The face of the hub was not bonded to the rotor at all. I was able to move the rotor around quite a bit so it was definitely the parking brake shoes that were getting caught on a ridge inside the rotor drum.

 

In that case, sometimes hitting the side of the rotor will free up the ebrake enough to slide the rotor off, an old drum trick that works on the rear discs too.

you do have to be carefull with the rear discs, there is a little clip on the bottom that breaks and you need to replace teh rear ebrake because of it.

Sounds like you ahve it under control.

 

I am having the same problem on a 99 Bravada. The rotor is free from the axle shaft but it wont come off.

 

If you can, rotate the axle while you pull on the rotor. This will give the internal drum shoes a chance to free themselves of the ridge on the inside of the drum.