Help with drum brakes
 

I went to swap my drums and shoes yesterday (first time working on drum brakes) as the drums were pretty badly rusted. I got the drums off without too much drama, but the shoes looked complicated and the instructions in the factory manual were vague as they assumed any mechanic would have experience with drums.

But the shoes looked like they had lots of meat, so I just put the new drums on for now until I could find some better instructions.

But once I went of a test drive there is a vibration coming through the brake pedal. Sort of like a warped rotor, but the frequency seems to high. It's frequency does increase with speed and the harder I'm on the brakes the worse it is.

Having no experience with drums I have no idea what the problem is. Can somebody enlighten me?

u never replace the pads did u :) if u only replaced the pads (shoes)

they wil be ground 2 the shape of the worn out drum !!!


so now u have nice streight drums on there only the highest point of the pad is toutching anything so they wil hardly work at all


they are prety easy 2 take off its just 2 springs and there is like a nail with a flattened end all u do is squash the spring in and get some needle nose plyers and turn the nail thing so the flat part goes back through the hittle shot in the end of the spring and it should come offf no wories :)

back on is just the oposite squash the spring and opke the nail through the hole then turn it so it canot get back through the hole 90%

Ok, so my shoes are "chattering" on the drum because they are not matched. That makes sense.

The "tension pin" is the part you referred to. I got that off no problems (always much harder to put on, but I managed.

What I was confused about was which springs to undo first. The book seems to say the bottom ones, but the slots they fit in are angled up and it looks like they don't come out until the pads are bent down. The book also said I could "lower the shoe assembly" once I removed the tension pins, but I didn't see how this was supposed to move.

Do you have any links to good instructions?

mm i just took the top one off first:) take a pick be4 u begin so if u forget u know were everything was be4 u started or a vid ov u destroying them :) then work backwards :) its not that hard :)

their are little retainers that you pop off then the retainer spring at the bottom that connects the 2 shoes.....then there is a circlip you take off and pop the springs on and off...do one thing a timje adn keep the assembly together and use the other for reference...was easy for me...first one for me took 1 hour cause I had to piss around with it, next one was 20 minutes....if you have meat on pads left then just adjust them up or get new shoes either one...

My cousin just recently bought a second hand car and he recently did a maintenance to it. He also did replaced the drums because they were so rusted but after that, he also experienced this vibration from the brake. So we're wondering if replacing the old pads would resolve this problem as mentioned in this thread. Or anyone could share us some DIY with pics of fixing this. As you can see, me and my cousin are quite newbies so we don't easily understand some of the instructions mentioned in this thread.

Just because your drums are rusty on the outside doesn't mean they need to be replaced. As long as the contact surface on the inside of the drum is in good condition and there is still a significant amount of material there, then there is no reason to replace them. Just spray the whole internal shoe assembly with brake-cleaner to remove most of the brake dust, adjust the shoes (google how to do this) and you should be good to go.

However if you notice there is a significant amount of material missing/worn away from the contact surface on the inside of the drum (should be able to feel a lip where it's been worn down from originally), then they should probably be replaced. There is actually a spec inside diameter distance for the contact surface of the drum that can be measured to determine if they need to be replaced.

As for how to remove the shoes, I can't describe it. You have to see how it's done. It's not difficult. You should be able to find a DIY on the net somewhere.

Replacing shoes will resolve the issue. Make sure you get a new spring kit, also inspect the adjuster and lube it to make sure its free and moving. If its seized and rotted, replace it with a new one.

Basically unhook the two return springs, ebrake cable from the lever and the adjuster rod. Screw the star adjuster all the way in and reassemble the same way. The spring tool helps a lot with hooking and unhooking the springs. Also the hold down springs can get little annoying to put back on, but once you see how everything is being held, you will have no problems putting it all back together.

from my experience any drums you buy from parts made in china
will be warped out of the box you best machining the drums or get OEM parts

^^Somebody had bad experience with some parts.

Never do just 1/2 of a brake system. The reason for this is that the friction surfaces become machined to each other. So if you replace one part, in your case the drum. Then you must replace the mate, or shoe.

The same holds true for pads and rotors on disc brake setups.

Pay careful attention to what DTP said about the self-adjusting rod. This has to be able to move freely to work. It should also be no surprise that it should also be ADJUSTED prior to the first use of your brakes. A Helms or Haynes manual will have the procedure to do this. It's not complicated and is rough as the system does have a measure of self adjustment capability.

When pulling on the springs just be careful to watch your face/eyes, some of them can be pretty tight and if your face is over your pliers and somethings slips, you automatically have a garbage day. An old pickup and an idiot friend taught me that one.

-Sundown

From what i remember pads dont wear flat, but more in the shape of a triangle with the point being towards the outside wheel. Always change shoe's when changing drums, or have the drums resurfaced when changing shoe's. Work from the top to the bottom, then bottow to top. Make sure the piston seals are good, dont always need new hardware, and a small flat head screw driver is the best for putting back those springs. Dont over thighten the adjuster screw, if the tolerance is to thight wont be able to put the drum over the shoe's. Worst case check out you tube.