drum brakes

HI,
I have never done brakes before, but i have watched disk brakes be changed and feel comfortable doing those. I want to replace my drum brake shoes on my toyota corolla, and feel like i should just give up now cuz i cant even get the drum off. Any tips to that or of confidence to do them?

thanx
david

HI,
I have never done brakes before, but i have watched disk brakes be changed and feel comfortable doing those. I want to replace my drum brake shoes on my toyota corolla, and feel like i should just give up now cuz i cant even get the drum off. Any tips to that or of confidence to do them?

thanx
david

A badly worn drum will have a large ridge on the lip of the shoe surface area, and will catch on the shoes and/or, drums will also rust and somewhat fuse with the axle hub. if its just rust that is stopping you, use some penetrating oil around the inner hub and a really big hammer to free up the drum. If no amount of hammering will work, there is usually 2 threaded holes in the drum. Usually 8x1.25, get some bolts and run them in and this will force the drum out.

BUT if it is a lip that is the problem, this will pull the shoes back as the drum starts getting forced away from the drum. Worse case scenerio, if you keep forcing the drum off, you can break the wheel cylinders, and hold-down springs. Neither issue is expensive to fix though.

I don't recall if its easy to access on these, but the other option for hanging drums on shoes, is to back off the auto tensioner so that the shoes retract enough to allow the drum to slide past the shoes. Some brake setups makes this nearly impossible to access with the drum on though.

You will want to turn the drum on a lathe when you do finally get it off. Even without a lip, drums do warp/deform over the years of service. Although its definitely cheaper to do this yourself, even when you add in the cost of taking the drums to a shop to have them turned, if you are worried about breaking stuff and making yourself a big headache and added costs of replacing stuff....its not a bad idea to have a shop do the whole brake job. If you find a brake store, they usually have very competitive prices and its cheap enough that its hard to argue thats its not worth the money.

I've never enjoyed doing drum brakes either, so you might want to consider your alternatives before diving in and making the car immobile

LOL. Thanx for the reply. Thats exactly my problem is im scared ill screw something up and its the only transportation right now for me and my finace. I guess im so anxious to do it cuz ive alawys wanted to be a mechanic and keep wanting to learn this sooner than later. But i think i will break down this time and just pay the little extra.
Is les schwab good for brake jobs?


thanx again,
david

if its your only means of transportation, then I would definitely think heavily about taking it to a shop.

Les schwab is just as good as any. It always comes down to the mechanic thats working on your car. Preferably someone that is well seasoned on doing drums and has seen all of the scenario's I painted above, and knows what to do in each of them.

The auto tensioner mentioned above should be acceable though on the backing plate (the part behind the drum, and will be an oval slot, usually at the bottom. Insert a screw driver into the slot and turn the wheel, but one side is usually left hand thread and the other side is right hand thread, and you usually have to play with it for a while to figure out which is which. If this sounds confusing here is a little drawing that may somewhat help you.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/thesilentchamber/brakes/drum.jpg

Also you will need a couple of specialized brake tools to work on drums, such a spring spoon and retainer remover. If you dont have these they are fairly cheep and most parts stores will loan them to you.

Another thing that might be holding the drum in place is on a couple of the wheel studs check to see if there are retaining washers around the stud. I used to have a 99 s10 and the first time I changed the rear shoes on it there were retaining washers that held the drum in place and no amount of banging or prying would move the drum. If that is the case just get a flat head screwdriver under the washers and pry them up until you can get a grip on them with needlenose pliers or regular pliers and break the retaining washers off so you will not have any problems with it in the future.

Also you will need a couple of specialized brake tools to work on drums, such a spring spoon and retainer remover.


I believe thier called Pliers and Polly Grips :)

I believe thier called Pliers and Polly Grips :)


I think that translates into busted knuckles and new curse words...... I LIKE IT!.