These Brakes Need a Brand New Pair of Shoes

Picture post...

When the brake shoe pads fall off during removal of the brake drum, it is time for a new pair of shoes.

A side by side comparison of a restored rear brake assembly and unrestored rear brake assembly

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So much easier the second time around

I'm happy to say that a task that had taken me 2+ weeks the first time around only took 30 minutes the second time. Progress was halted for 2 weeks the first time I tried to figure out how to remove a brake drum with a stuck brake drum screw. After going through the pains the first time, I realized the best way was to grind out the flared screw head using a Dremel. This would also etch the brake drum, but as I would be replacing the brake drum anyways, this was fine.

The screw holding the brake drums in place is actually a pretty soft metal. So after grinding most of the flared screw end out, pulling out the brake drum with the puller did the rest. All that was left to do afterwards was to use vice grips to remove the rest of the screw.

Caption: Using vice grips to remove the remaining screw end

Pictures

Adding some pictures...

Back view of rear assembly. (restored assembly on right)

Picture of unrestored assembly...quite filthy. Everything is caked in grease so it is not too rusty.

I've also mastered the order in which bolts and parts should be removed and am down to the axle and drum by itself. Start by removing the radius arm and then vertical link to axle bolt. Having to break through the rust and filth, it took about 30 minutes to disassemble. (The vertical link to axle bolt was pretty corroded on the thread end making the nut removal difficult.)

Before and after rear assembly

To finish up the rear assembly, I punched out the old axle hub bearing seal (action picture on left) and replaced it with a new seal. I need to better organize the parts I order as I had to dig through old invoices and search around the house for the seal kit as I thought I bought it... then thought I might not have... and then realized I actually purchased the kit and had misplaced a whole set of parts ordered from Victoria British. Right now, there are car parts old and new throughout the basement, garage, and even parts of the living areas - keeping track of all this is getting to be difficult.

The new seal (picture of new seal and old seal is to the right) was easy to install and could easily be pushed in. Most of the remaining rear assembly components were easy to install except for when it came to wedging the radius arm into the vertical link. After the poly bushing is installed in the radius arm, there is hardly enough space to get it in position on the vertical link. Chris ended up taking a piece of wood to pry enough space in the vertical link arm hinge to get the radius arm in place. After that, we had to coax the bolt through the radius arm end since it was a tight fit and finally got through what would be the most difficult part of the night.

Then after getting everything in place, I realized I forgot to put a washer on the bolt that sits behind a vertical link/radius arm joint. (ugh) So we pried out the bolt then the radius arm and undid the bolt to install the washer. Reattaching the radius arm was much easier the second time around and now we are finally done with one of the rear assemblies.

Below shows the restored assembly with the brake drum absent (on left) with the unrestored assembly (on right).

Drum brakes ain't easy...

It wasn't easy, but one rear wheel restoration is almost complete. I made use of the 70+ degree weather we had this weekend to spray paint the rear brake plate. This was the last task needing to be complete before I could start reassembling everything.

It took a bit of picture digging and diagram studying to remember how everything fit together. It was clear on how to put most things back together as it fit well in a certain order or position. My d'oh moment of the night was when I forgot to put the key shaft (small metal piece that holds the hub and shaft in place) in the shaft before driving the hub down. Forgetting to do so and having tightened the hub down, I had to take out the hub puller and re-pull out the hub. (To see how to do this correctly the first time, skip to 7 min. 50 sec. in the youtube video posted on December 30, 2011.)

Putting in the brake components was a bit tricky as force and shuffling was required to squeeze everything in to place. Having Chris help me with this part definitely made things easier as one person could hold things in place while the other pushed and pull springs and other parts. Also, it helped to have another person to brainstorm ideas on how to put the pieces together. We learned that springs should go on early since they are on the undersides of the shoes, found it easier to put springs in place on the drums first and then position the drums, and that the shoe hold down washer/spring kit is more conveniently installed when using a wrench.

For the shoe hold down kit, in order to get the pin and washer aligned properly, we used the closed end of a wrench to push the washer and spring down while spinning the pin from underneath to lock at a 90 degree angle. The wrench opening allowed us to have a clear view to make sure we got the 90 degree angle. (Below: Chris using the wrench to push down the spring.)

There are still a few more things to put together on the rear assembly and then after that there is the driver rear assembly that needs to be restored. Almost one down and still another to go...(I'm a bit off track from my winter goal to be complete with both assembly units.)

Piece of cake

I put the shop press to test by swapping out the rusted and worn out wheel studs with new studs. From start to finish, this task only took 5 minutes with the new press. The press worked great and got the job done.

To support the extraction (and later insertion) of the studs, I used sockets to support the surrounding area under pressure by the press. The studs came out smoothly with the exception of one stud that had become rusted on over the years and came out with a loud bang. Insertion of studs was just as easy.

This picture shows the rust and grime from the stud that came out with a bang.

With new wheel studs all in place...

A treat...for myself

After a busy month at work, I decided to reward myself with a shopping spree at Harbor Freight and picked up a 6 ton A-frame bench shop press. It was something I had been considering to buy used off craigslist, but after no luck in my search and Harbor Freight having a sale, I splurged and bought a new press.

It was a bit of a pain to put it together by myself as it took some maneuvering to get all pieces to happily come together in some 3-dimensional shape. And then after all that effort, I still had to spend some time to get everything square before tightening all the bolts down. The paint job is sub-par as many parts show paint drips, but overall, the press is pretty sturdy and that's what really matters.

Up next, testing it out...

If the wheel bearings are fine, I really really really should leave them alone

As I was typing the title in for this blog, the blogspot software provided an auto-complete option of "If it ain't broke...don't fix it". That blogged turned out to be related to replacing the front wheel bearings, in which I decided wheel bearings are better left alone unless broken. Clearly, I do not learn lessons well.

In the past month, I became so focused on removing the rear wheel bearing, since I had purchased replacement parts a while back and figured that since I have the replacement, I might as well use it. After trying to figure out how to gain clearance to the bearing, finding the jaw pullers to be inadequate for pulling the bearing, going to Harbor Freight to buy the bearing puller set that was current on sale for $39.99, FINALLY pulling the bearing off, but in the process grinding the axle head, I finally stopped and realized, "I really did not need to do this."

In the end, the bearing was fine, I didn't need to spend $39.99 and I could have moved along with the rear axle restoration without this step and saved hours worth of restoration effort. So now I think I have definitely learned this lesson, but just in case:

• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.
• I will not replace wheel bearings unless they are broken.

Just so this experience was not in complete vain, instructions on how to remove wheel bearings are below:

Step 1: Push the axle hub down using the rod and nuts method from Tuesday, March 13th's post. I went through a few rods getting bent in the process (fitting a nut on both top and bottom of the hub helped a bit). In the end, you just need enough space to slide the bearing guide plates in between.

Step 2: Assemble bearing puller around bearing. as you tighten the bearing plates, it will force itself to a better position by pushing the axle hub further down. (I spent too much time worried about spacing on the axle hub in step 1 and this step covered it.)

Step 3: Use something to protect the puller axles from the axle. I ended up grinding out some of the axle center before I realized this was happening and put a washer in between the axles.

(Picture on left shows metal shavings from the axle center.)