My brothers 2000 express 3500 van blew a hard brake line for the front brake circuit the other day.Rusted out and will be replacing this weekend.The problem is he had no back brakes when this failed.I suspect his back brakes are out of adjustment as he has told me the Emergency brake doesn't work either.When I told him to remove the rear brake drums to have a look he told me they won't come off.My question is do these drums need to be knocked off with a large hammer and if so will it damage the axle.I would hate for this to snowball beyond a brake job into a rear axle problem.And no one was injured with the brake failure,he was able to get off the road without hitting anyone or anything,thank goodness.

 

See if there is an access or knockout to loosen the auto adjusters. If the parking brake cables are frozen and the shoes are dragging this could cause issues also.
The drums will usually have to be loosened with a good size hammer because of the rust ridge that forms as the shoes wear into the drum. It can take some work! If the drums come off be sure to replace the parking brake cables if they are frozen.
If you get finished, have someone press the pedal while the rear bleeder is opened. If fluid comes out then you know there is not restriction. If there is no fluid, you will have to loosen the line at points going back toward the master cylinder to find the point of the restriction. If brake lines have rusted out then there could be a possibility that the flexible hoses have suffered some internal corrosion at the fitting crimps.

 

The 3500 that year has a full floating rear axle, you have to unbolt the axle and slide it out before the drum will come off...

 

Yup, now that you mention it....it sparked a memory. Been doin' a lot of rear discs lately.
The removal of the rear axles for access to drums is a little more complex! If you haven't done it before it would be recommended to follow the service info for your truck from a manual or a printout from Mitchell on Demand or AllData. Or, if tools and information aren't available, a trip to a qualified shop would be the next thought.
Once you're inside the drum...the shoes, springs, cables and anchors will look familiar if you've done drums before. If you're going to attempt it try doing one side at a time so you have the other for an assembly referrence.

 

Remove the axle to remove the drum?I wonder what the logic behind that was,probably the same guy who decided you didn't need a plug on the backing plate to adjust the brakes.