bdub217

How to change Rear Shoes.











ANTI SEIZE COMPOUND















And please everybody remember........

bdub217

Notice the front shoe has a shorter pad area than the rear.
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You will notice the springs are different colors, i had two packages that someone had opened and mixed into one bin already for some reason and the sizes werent all that different until i tried fitting them, the final picture end product is shown with all the correct hardware. i was pressed for time and couldnt take more pics to show the correct hardware, i feel it doesnt affect the idea or get in the way of the learning process. feel free to pm me with questions, or post here of course.

DeltaDevil88

BRAVO! BRAVO! well done, thanks for your time and efforts

MDchanic

Looks like you figured out your brakes .

Good job!

- Eric

1970cs

Very nice! and you were worried about what? I am sure that when you re-installed the drum, you made sure that they were adjusted to the point of a light drag on the drum!

Pat

bdub217

Actually i closed the star screw completely, then put the drum on and let it adjust itself to the right "tightness." (this will happen upon driving and braking of course)


Thank you everyone, you are very welcome! I'll try to do a few more tutorials on some other simple projects to help you guys save some money.

78Delta

Good job! But slightly incorrect. The star adjuster only works when the brakes are applied in reverse.


When finishing the brake job; hand adjust the star adjuster just so that the drum clears the installed shoes. Bleed the system starting from the brake cylinder (or caliper) that is on the opposite side of the master cylinder and is at the farthest point from the master cylinder, and then work forward. When done correctly, the last wheel bled will be the wheel on the same side of the master cylinder, and the nearest to the master cylinder.

Use an empty parking lot for the following: With the wheels on the car, drive the car in reverse at about 1100 - 1500 rpm and stab the brakes 4 - 5 times. The rear end should firmly squat, but not violently. Obviously you don’t want to hurt the vehicle or risk a ticket. Both sides will be correctly adjusted assuming that the star wheels are working properly. From then on the brakes will adjust themselves as you stated.

Also you should wire brush the threads on the adjuster and use some grease. I always used light application of 500*F wheel bearing grease on the threads and in the cap. The grease will collect dust over time, yes, but; it will keep it from scaling rust and making removal at a later date difficult.

By the way you are the only person I have seen in 30 plus years that held the shoes correctly. Fingers only on the edges, never, never on the braking surface. Holds true for caliper pads as well.

DeltaDevil88

Doing this on my Delta 88 this next weekend ordered my Wagner thermoquiet shoes from rock auto and also will replace hardware.

78Delta

Best of luck, GM's full size cars are pretty easy to do.

DeltaDevil88

Will try and get my own pics up soon.

DeltaDevil88

Before and after.

MDchanic

I hate to say this, but they looked fine before.

Nice job, though.

- Eric

oldcutlass

x2

Octania

Did you mention anywhere whether the longer shoe goes on the front or the rear?

Also, there are more contact points such as the anchor pin at the top, where the braking force gets transferred to the axle, and the adjuster link at the bottom where it transfers force from one shoe to the other. I like to use white brake grease and the "acid brush" [teensy brush] to coat these surfaces.

Leaky wheel cyl. inspection should be shown.

This is one of those jobs where you really should get the 2-3 tools that will greatly expedite the process... the retainer 1/4 turn tool, the funny looking pliers that make the springs remove and install a breeze...

pcard

Great primer on brake shoe replacement! Thanks.
If I could suggest a comment on:
- removal of rusted on drum. I use a propane torch.
- care in handling of cylinder. I always seemed to do something to the cylinders that made them leak from the boots afterwards, and so ended up replacing them as well.

Octania - what are the pliers you are referring to - I use a screwdriver.

Octania

Amazon.com
"brake pliers"

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...brake%20pliers


Snap-on via epay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SNAP-ON-TOOL...3c9885&vxp=mtr

The round end makes removal of the two top anchor springs a BREEZE. Other leg puts 'em on fast and easy. Not real sure what they were thinking with the pinchy end, maybe a Chevy thing. If you just need to do these tasks, then this is a good choice:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Snap-on-Bend...191a48&vxp=mtr


this puts the 1/4 turn shoe retainer springs on/off easy:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Snap-On-B135...fded0c&vxp=mtr

For adjusting the star wheel, lesser brands will suffice, but here's a real nice one for cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Snap-On-Tool...435456&vxp=mtr

pcard

Thanks - makes me want to go out and change my brakes just to try out the tools.

DeltaDevil88

@MDchanic & oldscutlass The previous weekend I replaced my front pads and just wanted to complete the rears at the same time, I know they didn't really need it but I have OCD lol and now wont have to mess with the front or rear brakes for awhile.

pogo69

I thought the strut spring went to the front

bigoldscruiser

Here are two pictures of the completed assembly on the right rear of my '66 98. Those are the correct colors for the springs. There are some slight differences from the original subject project.

ziff396

Great timing for a refresher for me! I'm putting new drums and shoes on mine tomorrow morning! I re used the originals 4 years ago as they looked fine. Lately they have been making noise and sqweaking at a stop. Hate that. Upon inspection, mainly they were a little dirty and the shoes and drums looked smooth although the drums are a little different from each other. Anyways, the MAW's said while I have them apart, why not just go with new. Thanks for the pic's.

nanardos

Hi,

Great tutorial !

Can you please also explain how to fit the parking brake lever ?
(any pic ?)

Regards

Bernard

Kilmster

This is great info.


I'm redoing mine as the wheel cylinder had a blow out and I think they just keep adding brake fluid and driving it. I've never seen such a greasy, messy drum brake.


I'm really struggling with the parking brake part of this though. When I have it in place where I think it goes (the manual is worthless for this part), that horizontal bar doesn't seem to line up quite right between the shoes without contacting the parking brake assembly in a funny manner.


Also, my spring on that horizontal bar has a little pig tail on it, and you can put that spring on a total of four different ways. Any idea which way that pig tail goes?


Any pics or diagrams would be greatly appreciated.

Macadoo

Maybe post a pic of the parking brake / strut interface? That strut needs to go on with a certain orientation. But I'm not sure what you mean by pigtail. My springs didn't have any obvious protrusions. Once it's all together, make sure that you can turn the adjuster star wheel in one direction only. You should here/feel the adjuster lever arm clicking between the teeth. To turn the wheel back, simply pull out on the lever a little and turn the wheel. Maybe these diagrams will help.

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VI Cutty

I just finished the rear brakes on my '71 Cutlass S and thought I'd throw out these observations:

- The spring positions in the early pictures are incorrect. There are only two yellow hold down springs in each kit, one per wheel. They hold down the rear shoe with the parking brake lever.

- The green spring is the hold down spring for the leading shoe - it is not the parking brake lever return spring as shown here. The tapered end of the green spring goes against the shoe.

(Discovered this after starting on the second wheel, cursing the missing springs and taking a good look around...then having to redo the first wheel correctly!)

- The spring kit does not include the tapered parking brake lever return spring, you'll need to re-use the existing spring.

I found a great tutorial showing the brakes on a '96 Yukon/Tahoe which will be helpful too. It's amazing how similar the brakes are 25 years later - identical except the '96 uses an e-clip to hold the brake lever to the shoe and my '71 doesn't.

This page also gives some hints on using the brake tools (ie pliers) mentioned earlier in this thread. Really wish I'd found that information a couple days ago.

http://www.handymanlyness.com/archiv..._96_Yukon.html

Of course I didn't find this until after I finished the brakes, and find there are a couple items I need to go back and check now. At least the car's still on axle stands and hasn't moved yet!

rjohnson442

I hate drums because by the time you have to do them again you forgot all the tricks you learned the last time around.

joe_padavano

I'm pretty sure that the spring colors are not standardized among the various aftermarket spring kits. Just match up the old ones with the new ones. Also, I've never seen a hardware kit that includes the spring for the self adjuster arm. The anti-rattle spring for the strut is hit-or-miss. Some kits come with it, some don't. I just did the rear brakes on my 99 Chevy dually and the kit came with the anti-rattle spring, but it was a different shape and wire diameter from stock, so I put the old ones back on. That spring is not particularly critical, anyway.

VI Cutty

You're probably right on the colours. Mine matched the colours/shapes used by the OP in this thread and in the link I provided. Either way, it appears the springs are positioned incorrectly in the first post here.

The main way I clued in was noticing that the old hold down springs weren't a matched pair, but by that time it was too late to see which spring went on which shoe, and how it was oriented.

Another point is the importance of matching the new springs to the old. There are one or two springs in the kits which are side specific. Using the wrong spring will lead to further frustration!

joe_padavano

I think all of the springs only fit in one location (at least, without forcing). For example, the hold down springs - the self adjuster lever fits onto the rear brake shoe using a bushing with a flange. The flange is the same diameter as the untapered hold down spring. The tapered one doesn't really fit there. And since both hold down springs use the quarter turn caps that fit inside the spring ID, you can't properly install the tapered spring upside down (or if you did, alarm bells should be going off in your head).

The retractor springs are the same way - one long and one short. The short one is designed to hook onto the self adjuster actuating rod and won't reach if you try to use it on the front shoe. The self adjuster only goes one way - with the star wheel to the rear so it engages the self adjuster lever - and thus the spring only fits one way to clear the star wheel. The strut has one wide slot and one narrow slot, so it also only fits one way (wide slot over the double thickness of the rear brake shoe and e-brake actuating lever).

serta1

The longer shoe goes on the rear normally. The one question I have is the brake kit I bought had two different length Hold Down Pins. One had a number 2 on it and the other the number 4, which was longer. Does anyone know which one goes on the primary or secondary shoe? I have a 71 Cutlass S and replaced the wheel cylinders. Also I noticed that the hand brake lever does not have the part that goes through the shoe and is held in place with the circlip. Thank you.

VI Cutty

How many of each pin was provided? I seem to recall the kit I had included a couple different lengths which weren't actually needed. Hopefully you have your old parts so you can compare.

You may also need to reuse the brake lever pivot - I think only the circlip for it is in the hardware kit.

joe_padavano

Correct. The A-body cars used 2.5" shoes on the front and 2" shoes on the back (except the VC, which also had 2.5" on the back). The brake hardware kits for front and back are identical except for the length of the pin. It's much cheaper for the manufacturer and parts stores to stock one kit with both pin lengths vs. two different kits, so every kit I've ever seen for these cars has two short and two long pins.

Macadoo

It's been about a year since I did mine but I'm pretty sure my '71 CS used the short pins.

serta1

I figured out the problem. The brake kit is missing pins. Supposed to have 8 in the kit. I contacted ROCK AUTO to let them know. Thank you for the information.

oldcutlass

If your old pins are in good shape you can reuse them.

joe_padavano

RA is usually pretty good about fixing problems like this.

Olds442redberet

This is a very well done tutorial. It'll come in handy when I do my brakes next month.

Thanks

serta1

Unfortunately the car has sat for over 10 years and there is a lot of rust. The pins are about to break in two. I just got done replacing the fuel tank because it has tiny holes in it. RA is sending another kit though.

Macadoo

Yup, RockAuto rocks.

supmarjo

hi... Marcado/everyone ...do you have a diagram showing the rear of a ’57 olds drum ...like pic (fig. 5-33)....im having trouble hooking up the E brake ... thks