Removing rear brake discs

[moony123]

I've been changing discs and pads on my XC90 2005 2.4 163bhp, I cannot however remove the rear brake discs. They come loose, wobble but will not turn much and are both stuck on one side. I am guessing the handbrake shoes are stuck to it (handbrake not on). Is there a way of releasing the shoes manually?

[tonygreen1966]

You've not said if you have released the handbrake cable tensioner under left side of centre console. You can Google how to do this. You may also have manual adjusters in the drum which are accessible through wheel bolt holes midway up towards front. Turn the toothed wheel with a screwdriver anti clockwise when viewed from above.

[gmonag]

Slacken the cable at the adjuster. Its under the trim on the left side of the centre console.

Otherwise it's a case of brute force and leverage.

[XJSDriver]

The problem you likely have is that the brake shoes have worn a wear lip on the outside of the drum making it difficult to slide off over the shoes.
I find using the 'big persuader' works but does create a lot of noise and usually swearing too! Here is a link to a technique I have not tried myself but might work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po-WXqIKjHQ
Perhaps someone else here has used this technique?

[60041]

When I had an XC90, I experienced this problem several times; sometimes the expanders were seized and the brake shoes were not retracting properly, other times it was because of a lip of rust on the inside of the drum grabbing the shoes: either way it was a pig of a job.
The only way is brute force; a large copper mallet may shock the shoes loose, but usually I had to resort to pry bars and just work around the drum. Sometimes it was possible to pack the drum as far forward as it would go, then drive the shoes back towards the backplate with a long punch through one of the bolt holes.
Usually this method would work, but the retaining springs and slotted caps would suffer, so it is worth having spares to hand- they are not expensive.
The solution for all this is to replace the fixed link with an adjustable one and use that to take up all the original adjustment when reassembling the brake: that means that the adjuster can be wound back when required to release the brake in future.

[oragex]

As above the shoes cannot slide past the drum because of a lip of rust. What keeps the upper shoe in place is a small spring - you can either pull the drum with force at the top end to bend/break this small spring but you risk damaging the hole where the spring is attached. Or you can also pull at the top of the drum, have it a little moving then try to slide a blade behind the drum at the top, to push down on the shoes. May want to inspect the shoes for delamination and replace the small spring. This is how the spring looks like https://youtu.be/nGUBc2Ch4Yo