I was cleaning my drums with the grinder( they were caked in rust) and I was able to easily take the drum lid off. I thought you had to beat this thing with a hammer to come off. The left side came off but I couldn't get the right side off. is this a bad thing that it just comes off.

pic:

 

as long as your wheels are on your truck its not a problem

 

yup no problem your wheel will keep it on there no if your wheel comes off good chance it could come off

 

means you brakes arnt very tight

 

Looking at the pic tells me the rears have not been adjusting up properly.
If a rear drum comes off easily the shoes were not tight to it.

 

Ok so I should set an appointment to get it fixed. I new something wasn't right. Thanks guys

 

You can do it yourself with just a flathead screwdriver or brake spoon, if you have one.

All you do is pop out the little rubber grommet on the bottom of the backside of the drum and there's a little gear inside there, turn it with the screwdriver until it gets tight.

 

He doesn't even need to pull the grommet since the wheel and drum is already off. Just turn the star wheel adjuster and put the drum back on until you feel a slight drag on the drum. Repeat if necessary until they feel good.

 

They way you can easily adjust them is go fast in reverse then slam on the brakes. Make sure the adjuster can turn easily. If it is frozer, then that could be why the brakes arent adjusted right.

 

I was going to say you don't even have to take it off to adjust them. The Ranger Drums have self adjusters like robert said.

I usually try and do that once a month.

 

Its not that bad that the drums came off that easy. as long you don't have a problem braking u'll be fine. Most times when the drum won't come off its cuz there is a rust lip on the edge of the drum. Why would you want the shoe's tight against the drum. u'll cook the shoes and get terrible gas mileage while ur doing it. I've ruined an axle from having the shoes adjusted to tight.

 

^No one said you want them tight on there. You want them properly adjusted

 

so going fast in reverse and slamming on the brakes works? If I go like 20mph in reverse is that fast enough, how fast do you have to go?

 

yah that should be fast enough, Ihad to rpelace the hardware on mine yesterday, brake adjuster was seized so I replaced all the hardware

 

You can clean the brake adjusters. I just took mine apart and used emery cloth to shine them up and used a wire brush on the threaded part. Make sure to use anti seize sparingly on the end that just spins and you should be good to go. If they are really rusty you can use a propane torch to heat up the end and use plyers to get it apart. Another good idea is to use your parking brake. That helps the adjusters to work and also makes sure that the parking brake cables don't get frozen.