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I'm in a bind. I'm trying to remove the hand brake drum from my 51 M38 to replace a number of springs that are worn out. Here's what I've been able to do successfully:

Drain the transfer
Remove the prop shaft flange
Remove the cotter pin, hex nut, and washer from the rear end of the transfer output shaft

According to the 9-8012 manual, I should now be able to simply pull off the companion flange along with the hand brake drum, but the drum won't budge. There's about 1/4" of play, but beyond that the drum won't back out any further. I took a blow torch to the center part companion flange and still wasn't able to remove the drum. Using a flathead screwdriver to pry off the companion flange didn't work either.

Am I missing something here? Any suggestions? Anything would be appreciated.

Have you adjusted the shoes inward away from the drum so they don't grab that small wear lip on the inside edge of the drum?

Wes may be correct....also it is not unusual [because of leakage along the splines] for an informed person to SEAL the companion flange splines to those of the output shaft.
This would make the flange difficult to remove & levering with one screwdriver won't work....try one each side or better still try using a proper puller & when loaded a good whack on the puller centre bolt might help.