I hear ya but I cant believe that a sledge won't take it off in a few whacks if we're not trying to save anything from the backing plate out.
Have you ever removed one of the tapered axle drums before?
I watched my boss, with 25 years of experience working on those tapered axle drums destroy an axle shaft trying to remove a drum once. He had all the correct equipment and he used every trick he had ever learned and it still didn't work. Sometimes they just don't come apart. He ended up cutting the drum and removing the brake shoes to get the axle out and replaced that axle with a junk yard axle shaft and drum.
