I have a 2003 HD 2500
I wanted to pull the rear rotors and inspect my parking brake shoes

do I have to pull the axles to get the rear rotors off?

will the rear rotors come off without pulling the axle?.. any tips?

 

Mine came off with a tap of a hammer.(on wood block)

 

They can be a real pain to get off. The back of the rotor corrodes onto the face of the axle. It took me a couple of days to get them separated.

Start by backing off on the brake shoe adjustment. Make sure all the tension is taken out of the cable.

Like he said, bang on the back of disc a couple of times to see if it will come off that easy. Don't hit metal to metal.

Use your favorite penetrating oil (not WD-40), and squirt it into the holes that the studs protrude through. Rotate the axle so you get a good spread.

I did that for a couple of days and I still had trouble getting it off.

I put the axle up on jack stands, loosened the lug nuts a bit I put it in drive and got the speed on the meter up to about 30mph. I put the trans in neutral and slammed on the brakes. It took a couple of tries but it did break it free.

The other side came right off without even a hammer blow.

 

my 2003 were a sob to get off, the parking brake shoes will not stop you from getting the rotors off!!! I used a morgan knocker slid hammer to remove the rotors. drivers side took about 15 minutes to remove what a sob.use plenty of anti sieze when installing the new rotors.