1989 Buick Park Avenue Rear Brakes

[Steve Walker]

Can anybody help? I've got a 1989 Buick Park Avenue and have recently replaced the rear brake shoes and spring kits. The upper shoe return spring on both assemblies keeps coming out. I've already ruined one new drum because of this. I've tried to crimp the end of the spring that goes over the little metal bracket - (i'm not sure if that end is coming off first or not) to no avail. I'm beginning to think the spring may be coming out of the opening in the shoe (where the other anchor point is) first. Whatever is going on this is a new problem - the car has 113000 miles and the upper return spring on the left rear popped loose a month ago and started me on the path I now find myself on. Any advice or useful tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[bustedratchet]

Are you trying to use the hook on the short end of the spring ? You should install the spring in a way that the first piece of the spring coming off the winding contacts the hole. The hook itself should end up on the backside of the brake shoe.

[Steve Walker]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have done that. At first it seemed as though mabye the spring was popping off the connecting link side - not coming out of the shoe/adjuster side - but - I'm not sure. I just know it's coming apart.This design is goofy at best. Nothing really for the spring to "latch" onto - it just barely gets over the link - that's why I tried crimping the end to get it a little further around the link. The problem seems to happen when the shoes shift a little - I'll explain -- When braking (going forward) the shoes in both assemblies will tend to try to torque or twist in the direction of the wheel rotation as they are being applied - clockwise for the right rear and counter-clockwise for the left rear (I know you know what I mean). - So far no problem. But, brake in reverse and shift the shoes a little the other way and POP! The springs come out, the link comes out and both pieces fall into the space between the shoes at the bottom and start riding the drums.That's what had me thinking mabye the springs are coming off at the connecting link side. Either the spring is popping off the link or the link is somehow coming out. When the springs came out even after crimping I started to wonder if mabye they were coming out of the adjuster side since that end of the spring is just inserted the hole on the opposite shoe - but I don't know any other way to anchor the short side of the spring than what you described. It just goes in the hole - half a turn to rotate the spring and you're done. It stays put while pulling the spring over the link (that's a strong spring!). It stays put while testing the brakes with the drum off. It only comes apart after a few change of direction brake applications after fulll assembly and test drives. Mabye I'm starting to over think this but it's frustrating to say the least. I understand GM scrapped this particular design after techs in the dealerships reported similar problems. However I would have thought there was a fix out there for all the cars still on the road.

[bustedratchet]

I've done a lot of brakes in my life and never had this problem. I'm trying to picture this setup in my head. Is the aduster at the bottom? Do the return springs go to a center point on the top that is round with a strong wire that hooks to an adjusting arm on the rear shoe ? Is it an oval setup that the springs clip onto a couple small ears?

[Steve Walker]

Hey Bustedratchet - thanks again for the interest/replies. Yes this brake setup is goofy as I said earlier. Maybe the engineers thought it would be funny but I'm not laughing. I'll try my best to describe the setup for you. First let me say that I've been in the automotive field for 25 years (mostly foreign cars) and have worked on many different types of brake setups/configurations (both foreign and domestic). This is the first one I've seen that looks exactly like this. I know, I know - what took me so long? The forward brake shoe is held in place in the usual manner as is the rear brake shoe, ie: Hold down spring, pin and retainer in the center of each shoe (think 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock). Below the wheel hub is a rather large anchor plate/pivot point for the shoes to rest against. The shoes are connected by a lower return spring which stretches below and around the anchor pivot (and behind the plate). This is the 6 o'clock position. There is no adjuster in this location! The leading brake shoe on each assembly has a spring connecting link which is placed in two holes - one hole at 10 o'clock and the other at 11 o'clock. The link anchors the left side of the upper return spring (the spring goes over a little crook in the link half way between 10 and 11). The upper return spring lives just under the wheel cylinder (12 o'clock) and runs horizontially to the parking brake lever/trailing shoe and mounts in a hole that's just below the parking brake lever anchor pin half way between 1 and 2 o'clock. The adjuster mechanism lives just below and rearward of the upper return spring (above the hub) - touching 10 and 2. The adjuster actuator lever is mounted on a pivot which shares the 10 o'clock position with the connecting link. The spring for the actuator lever goes through a hole in the lever down to the left and through a hole in the leading brake shoe at about the 8 o'clock position. Clear as mud, huh? So to recap - five springs total - top return, bottom return, two hold down, and one actuator lever spring. Only the top return springs have been giving me fits. I've reassmbled the car for the sixth time and so far, so good. I replaced the springs with new ones (again) thinking perhaps I got weak springs. Seems to have helped in the short run. Time will tell.

[bustedratchet]

This sounds like one of the setups that have a crooked wire looking peice that goes through a dowel pin on the bottom and then runs upward to another hole in the shoe ? That setup is a pain in the butt. I think there are worse ones out there I hope the new springs work out for you

[Steve Walker]

You got it now. That crooked wire thing is the "connecting link". The springs (I finally decided) must have been coming out of the parking brake lever/trailing brake shoe side. This last set of springs I replaced looked a little distorted. The hook coming off the winding should be at right angles to the winding. At least that's what the new ones looked like! The springs that popped out had the hooks stretched out to about a 30 degree angle away from the winding. I don't honestly know if I stretched them too far during installation, or if they were just weak in the hook area and the springs' constant pull just straightened the hooks out over time. Whatever - - I didn't take any chances this last time around though. I was careful not to over stretch the springs during installation - made sure the hook end was fully seated and crimped the connecting link hook almost completely shut. 167 miles later and counting. So far, so good. Thanks again for the interest and replies.