Rear drum brakes

Mn66emberglo said:

My rear drums were starting to make a bit of noise so I popped off the wheel and drum yesterday for the first time to inspect the shoes. Looks like I need to replace the shoes. To do so I am kind of lost at how do I get the rear hub off. The hub has a squarish type center with no apparent nuts or anything else to remove. Which brings me to wonder how is that thing attached to the axle? Looks like I may be able to work around it to remove the shoes but would make it easier to get it out of the way.

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in my experiance with other brands of car, and drums... hubs stayed on.


just pop off springs and replace shoes.

Agreed, leave the hubs on (you'd have to pull the entire axle to get them out of the way) jack up the rear end and support on jack stands, remove one sides shoes at a time so you can refer to the opposite side to see where everything goes back on (just remember it's a reverse image). Longer shoes (leading) faces front, look at the new shoes = 2 long pads, 2 short, pair them up.
Screw the adjusters back in at the bottom (again reversed one is left hand thread) so that the drums will slip back on, not screwed all the way in, just enough to slip the drums over the shoes. When you're done and it's back on the ground do some hard stops in reverse, this will turn the auto adjusters back out to meet the drums and the shoes will be adjusted.

If you wanted to take it any farther you'd want to rebuild the cylinders while you're in there but then you'd have to bleed the brakes so just shoes would be much quicker job.
Also agreed on the 'spoon' tool and scissors tool for stretching springs, your fingers will thank you and the fingernails you don't pull out when the screwdriver slips and the high tension spring catches your nail or finger....
Jon

Jonk67 said:

Agreed, leave the hubs on (you'd have to pull the entire axle to get them out of the way) jack up the rear end and support on jack stands, remove one sides shoes at a time so you can refer to the opposite side to see where everything goes back on (just remember it's a reverse image). Longer shoes (leading) faces front, look at the new shoes = 2 long pads, 2 short, pair them up.
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Jon

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Maybe it's me the way it reads, so to be clear, the longer shoes go on the back, shorter ones on the front. The parking brake lever goes on the long/back shoe. And remove to reuse these parking brake levers - the new shoes don't include it and it's not available new from online stores (not that I could find). You have to unbend the U-clip to remove it. The spring washer goes with the parking brake lever - my new spring/adjuster kit did come with new spring and flat washers (the latter for the adjusting end).

I would adjust the adjusting star wheel by hand through the slot on the inside when the drum is back on. Turn it up from the inside until you just hear the shoes starting to rub the drums. Going in reverse and braking will turn the wheel, but one click at a time - it could take a while. My one wheel turned 2 or 3 turns before it started to rub. That's a lot of backing up and going forward.

Finally, remember the adjusting wheels are not interchangeable. They are clearly marked R and L on the ends. If they are reversed, the brakes will adjust looser, not tighter, when you back up and apply the brakes.

Bill

Thanks for all the good advice. I will leave the hubs on (sounds like I dont have much choice!) and buy some brake spring tools to start. While I am in there I will also check the wheel cylinders. There was a lot of crud on them when I checked last weekend . I dont know how old they are. I have rebuilt the ones on my 47 Ford and they look almost identical. The 47 rear brake design requires a special KR Wilson puller to pull the hub/drum assemble off after removing the axle nut. The old design had the assembly pressed onto a tapered axle. They did not have self adjusting brakes then so that is a little different. The directions given seem fairly straight forward.

You can replace the cylinders with new for not much more than the rebuild kits and avoid most of the mess. I rebuilt my rear cyliinders last time and when I smoothed the bores with emery clothe I found deep pits where the fluid squirts in. The kits are like $7/pair, new cylinder (raybestos) are $6 ea. = $12 less mess, no pits.

After researching what I could find on the web, looks like Bill above is correct, the front facing shoe will be shorter (leading shoe) for some reason I convinced myself to think Leading>Long but that appears incorrect. When I get to my shop manual I'll double check.

I would remove all the old brake fluid from the MC and start with fresh and flush all your lines when done from farthest (RR) to closest (LF) to get good clean fluid in the lines and flush out the old trashy fluid. I use a MityVac (harbour freight ~$30) hand pump and like it, makes it a 1 man job, just keep refilliing the MC and put the cap back on after each top off. I can usually fill my MityVac catch bottle then refill the MC before it runs dry. I've also used it to test vacuum on different parts or suck fluids out.

You'll find a lot of gunk in the bottom of your MC I'm guessing, I wiped it clean with old rags/paper towels, don't want that going back in with the fresh fluid. Use DOT3 or 4, the synthetic stuff isn't good for our old style rubber seals from what I've read, someone may prove me wrong though.
Jon