Drum Brake rebuild?

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Andre68

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I pulled my 8 1/4 rear end out the other week to clean it and repaint it and do anything else I had to...

Im new to brakes and dont know about my rear drums...

So I decided to take a picture so you guys can let me know what to do!

The car was sitting for about 10 years I believe, I dont know If I need to completely rebuild the drum brakes or just change the shoes, also how can I take all that rust off of them? just take a wire wheel to as much as I can?
 

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Also how do you remove the cover like it is in the photo? That side just slide off, the other side not really moving.
 
Bang it with a big fuckin hammer than pull like the devil. You may be able to back off the adjuster through a slot on the back but Im gonna guess its rusted fast.
 
In order to turn the self adjuster in reverse, you are going to have to reach through the adjusting slot with a small flat screwdriver, press the adjuster lever off the wheel and turn the wheel backwards with a brake spoon. It sounds tougher than it is. However, if it is frozen with rust as mentioned, then about the only way to get the drum off if the shoes are grooved into it badly, is introduce the drum to Mr. Sawzall. It works quite well, but of course, the drum will not live through it. I had to do it on my 65 Coronet.
 
I'd change the wheel cylinders anyway, cheap insurance, as for the hub spray the hell outta it with pb blaster and as mentioned get a bfh and smack the hell out of it
 
I'm not sure of the exact name of the tool but there is a tool that looks like a big pair of pliers with claws on the end that really helps getting your springs back on. I just rebuilt this exact brakes. The other comments on getting the drum off will help. Make sure to take lots of pictures before disassembling the brakes just so you know what goes where!!
 
doogievlg said:
I'm not sure of the exact name of the tool but there is a tool that looks like a big pair of pliers with claws on the end that really helps getting your springs back on. I just rebuilt this exact brakes. The other comments on getting the drum off will help. Make sure to take lots of pictures before disassembling the brakes just so you know what goes where!!
Click to expand...


"brake spring pliers"

https://www.google.com/search?newwi.....1c.1.29.img..3.18.1588.wSNKICBsRvE#imgdii=_
 
Got it off! anybody know what parts I need for this? Like what I can ask for at the parts store?
 
Andre68 said:
Got it off! anybody know what parts I need for this? Like what I can ask for at the parts store?
Click to expand...


It all depends what you want to replace.

Brake shoes
Brake shoe pins and keepers
Brake spring kits
Wheel cylinders
Brake Drums
Brake shoe adjuster screw assemblies
Brake shoe self adjusting kits


brakes.jpg
 
Should I just change the shoes and cylinders? I was wondering what drum brakes these are? Like do I ask for drum brakes parts for a 68 dart? I'm pretty sure this is not the stock rear end
 
Measure you drum inside diameter, and the width of your brake shoe. On my 8 and a quarter I gave the parts house those dimensions and as it turns out they were for a 70 charger. My brakes are 10 inch dia by 2 and a half wide shoes.
Luke
 
Yes, the rear is not out of a '68 because they didn't come with them. Do as stated above.

Once you figure out what brakes you need, I would get a brake hardware kit (springs, keepers, etc, one kit will do both sides), new shoes, and new wheel cylinders, and new hoses. Usually the adjustment hardware is re-usable. Fortunately, all that stuff is usually pretty cheap. Take your drums to NAPA or wherever and have them measure them to see if they are in spec and have room to be turned (if they need that). If they're no good, get new drums too.

Once you've done it a couple times, it's really not all that hard at all. Use flare wrenches on the brake line ends so you don't strip them, spray them with PB Blaster or similar first to loosen them up. Do one side at a time so you can look at the other one for reference, and take good photos before you begin so you have something to look back at also. Then just take everything off orderly and set it aside, then put the new stuff on the same way. Assuming nothing goes wrong (broken brake line for example), you can do a side in well under a half hour with the right tools. Harbor Freight has a brake tool kit pretty cheap that is soft metal, so not great, but will get the job done.

Also wear safety glasses, if one of those springs let loose, they can take an eye out pretty easily! Just go slow, and you're fine. When you're done, bleed the system, which I'm not going to go into, just get it all rebuilt first. Really, brakes aren't that hard.

Last, I recommend rockauto.com for brake (or any maintenance) parts. Even with shipping, they're usually the best deal. You could buy local too, but probably will pay a little more.
 
Cool.You should be able to get drums shoes and wheel cylinders for about a hundred bucks. Not sure what the spring kits go for but I'm sure they cant be too much.
Luke
 
Pretty sure my spring kit was like eight bucks. A few of the springs looked a little bit different but I put it all back together and everything is working just fine.
 
rockauto has most of the spring/hardware kits for a few bucks each. I bought a bunch awhile back to last me the rest of my life, just in case they're ever somehow unavailable. They're so cheap, you wouldn't not replace them. Rockauto stuff is so cheap, especially their closeout stuff, I actually bought enough maintenance parts to keep both my cars going for about the next 150 years.
 
I'm having trouble getting the adjuster cable to stay on the guide and then having enough room for it to latch on that little knob. How do I adjust it so I can set it up with ease.
 
I back the adjuster all the way off when assembling them. Hook the adjuster cable bottom to the cam lever or whatever its called, then take a small screwdriver and pry it onto the guide. Minimal force is used.
 
Got it! Did some more searching and found a thread were the guy had the same issue as I
 
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