OTC 6980 Heavy Duty Brake Drum and Rotor Puller , black, biggest size

I've never had a real problem removing drums on any of my vehicles owned over the years. Back off the auto adjuster to collapse the shoes and sometimes disconnect the emergency brake cable to insure no tension on the shoes and remove the drum. Yes, at times I might have used a rubber mallet and within a few minutes they came off, never any real struggle. That was the case until I tried removing the drums on a 1999 F150 XLT. Tons of PB blaster, rubber mallet, hammer, BFH, and a sledge hammer over several days with no luck. I researched many pullers and finally decided on the OTC6980. All of the traditional three jawed pullers I looked at had issues like jaw ends snapping or were made from stamped metal. Also the spread of the three jaw puller I would have needed to do the job was far to expensive. Kastar makes a puller KAS-833, similar design and concept of the OTC6980. Napa has a puller SER833, also Matco tools BDRP833A, that are identical to the Kastar. The Napa and Matco puller could just be a re-bagged Kastar or vice versa. From what I've seen the OTC 6980 looks much stronger than the Kastar puller. First impressions of the OTC6980, heavy duty, thick and solid build. The jaws were a tight fit on the crossbar meaning that I couldn’t just depress the metal plates/tabs on the jaws and easily slide them on the crossbar by hand. With the metal plates/tabs depressed I used a rubber mallet with a few taps to get the jaws on the crossbar. The strap came in handy on my particular application because the space between the backing plate and drum are very small. Once I got the puller spread right I just had to align the jaws and tap them in between the back plate and drum with a rubber mallet. I could of used a pry bar to open the space but it wasn’t necessary. The strap helped, applying pressure on the jaws of my tight fit keeping them in place until the space opened up. I used my 2ft ½ in drive breaker bar and 1 in socket to turn the forcing screw and to keep clear of the drum in case it decided to break up on me. It took two pulls to remove my drums. After the first pull about half of the drum was bent so I backed off and turned the puller 90* then pulled again. For a little extra safety do follow the instructions and run two luge nuts on a couple of threads. Each drum took maybe five minutes to pull. Of course after seeing the drums bend about a half inch or so I wasn’t going to turn them and reuse them so I put new drums on. I’m sure I would have destroyed/cracked them if I were to keep on using the twenty pound sledge and would have probably still been whacking away at them if I hadn’t purchased this puller. Overall the quality of the tool is rock solid and did as advertised. Very pleased with my purchase. Something I wished others would have done in the review was to include the size drum they used this puller on. The spread on my drum is 12 and 7/8 in.

This is a very heavy duty puller. I own several other types of pullers from Craftsman and Harbor Freight, but this one is by far the biggest and best. On my 26 year old, very rusty Chevy S-10, the left rear brake shoes froze and the hub froze along with them. The truck was unmoveable because the wheel wouldn't turn, and no amount of heating/hammering/pulling would budge the brake drum. My friends and I tried for hours and gave up. I was seriously considering having it towed away to the junkyard because it was blocking access to the garage and I couldn't get my toys out. I figured there had to be a better way, so I started searching for "Brake drum puller" and found this tool for $99 on Amazon. I bought it and it arrived in 2 days. I was impressed right away with this tool's heft and quality and went out to try it. I attached it to the drum, cinched up the strap and started turning the threaded rod. Right away, I started seeing the movement and hearing the creaking I had hoped for. I cranked, loosened and re-positioned this tool 3 times to make sure the drum was coming off straight, and in about 15 min of careful work, the drum came off. Everything under the drum (the brake shoes, springs, retainers, adjuster, etc) was rusted solid and got pulled off and destroyed in the pulling process. Not a big deal because it was all too rusty to re-use anyhow. The adjuster was one solid, piece of rust that probably hadn't turned for years. The shoes were a rusty mess too with the asbestos pulled free from the steel bases. But at least it was all off the truck which could now be moved too. I've ordered all new parts, backing plates, shoes and drums for both wheels and will do a complete rear brake replacement on both wheels now. ((BTW--Amazon had many of the parts cheaper than Advance or Autozone, so it pays to get the part numbers and get the Amazon prices before buying elsewhere )) This is one of those tools I'll probably only use 1-2 times a year, but it's definitely a keeper. Now that I have it, I'm sure I'll find other uses for it too.

Life saver for my 2013 Mazda Mazda3 brake job that had no maintenance on the brakes for 7 years driving in winter seasons. Driver's side rotor needed 2 attempts because it broke in 2 pieces and passenger side needed 3 attempts because outer perimeter broke in 2 pieces with the rotor center still stuck to the hub. Luckily, jaws can adjust to a narrow width to grab onto the rotor center. Rear rotors weren't as stuck as the front and eventually dislodged in one piece with the satisfying sharp crack. A bit expensive but was justified with just the one job.

Didnt get to use it as a part was missing

Wanted to give 4.5 stars. Only draw back was that teeth tended to splay out when pulling, and strap also expanded slightly despite wrapping around the gripping end, so it actually pulled itself off a few times, whereas a second adjustable bar at the teeth (grip) end to stop the teeth splaying would have been perfection. Nonetheless, it did what I could not have done without the tool, as old brake shoes had seized on drum, and having drilled out the brake shoe retainer springs from the back of the wheel hub, it finally pulled off. Phew. But have also used for other non-related job as as well to good effect.

This is the best tool for all brake shops. I have used it multiple times on stuck and rusted rotors and works like a charm. No hammering no loud noise.. just a snap and your rotor is off.

It is not bad, but it can not remove some brake rotors and drums which require smaller and sharp grip teeth, such as the rear brakes of Ford Escape. I have to use the traditional hammering way as suggested by other customers. That vehicle is a beast, not a bunny. Actually what I discovered was that the rear brakes need not any care, they are carefully designed and can last longer than your expectations.