smelled burning, saw smoke

valiantwagonguy said
When you cooked your brakes you probanly cooked the seals in the wheel cylinder and the axle seal as well.Better check them or it well get real messy in there.Been there done that

The seals were leaking before I cooked the drum. It was definitely a mess and not fun to clean up. Pushed the bearing grease out of course. These were newer seals too.
Do you have to press the bearing off to do the inner seal?

mrhp said
Circa 1973/1974 I'd picked up a double black '59 Edsel Corsari for a couple hundred as a joke to drive around. Actually wasn't a bad car. 332, manual everything. Drove it up to Union Grove WI with a couple buddies for a big NHRA event to see Big Daddy run of course. Parking was in the field on a steep uphill angle so the E brake was on. End of the day, beers etc, got in the car, fired it up, started home. No light on the dash and forgot about the E brake. Half way on the 294 the right rear wheel burst into flames. Yep. Somehow got word to a tow truck who picked up the car and took us home, me in the truck and my buddies in the car. They said it was frightening to say the least. Ah youth and the good ole days.

I was afraid I might go in Fedex and return to a bonfire :) Good story!!!

RustyRatRod said
I can certainly relate to that. A good tip. Doing work on drum brakes is really easy, even if you've not done it a lot. I've done so much of it, I can tear all four down, throw it all in the same bucket and go back, BUT, that's from decades of doing it. Just do one side at the time and leave the other side together as a guide. Just remember that opposite side is a mirror image. That's how I learned it and it sticks in no time when you see what everything is doing.

Man that is impressive. I think I would have a panic attack if all my brakes parts were in a bucket lol