Back when lots of the taper axle Mopars were still on the road, I replaced every one of those rear ends when it came time to do brakes. I watched my boss, with lots of years experience with those axles destroy one of the axles on two different cars attempting to show me how to remove the drums. He had the proper tools, the proper equipment, and lots of experience. Back then you could easily find a 66 -70 8 3/4 rear end for $50, even then you couldn't buy a new drum that cheap.
Prices of this stuff isn't cheap anymore, but I would still swap out the rear end before I'd fight with the stupid drum/tapered axle drum removal more then 10 minutes. Loosen the nut, drive the car around the block. if it hasn't popped apart, its gone. Solves the rear trunnion as well.
100% Agreed. It is a good idea to put a non castellated nut on the axle to keep it from "mushrooming" as they will as the pressure from the puller increases especially
due to the cotter key hole. I have had one that I had to take a rosebud ( torch tip) to heating the tapered portion of the hub, it finally legt go with a loud 💥. There are some earlier closed drive line vehicles that you're stuck with the setup
