StimpyBoy

Alright, thanks to one of the posts in the archive, I finally did my drum shoes this weekend. I thought I'd quickly write up the pitfalls of this.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE HAYNES MANUAL. They are smoking crack if they think you can reassemble it the way they illustrate. Also, it's not necessary to remove the spindle/hub/whatever. A good set of pliers will go a long way for this.

You will pretty much require a second person to do this job, specifically re-hooking the upper return spring.

- Chock front wheels. Place car in first gear/park. Jack up rear, place on jackstands. Remove wheels. Remove drum (make sure parking brake isn't on, duh).

- Take a picture of the setup first if you can with a digital camera. It will save you a shitload of time later when you get lost. Remember the adjuster orientation, the upper return spring orientation, the parking brake mounting shoe side, and the adjuster shoe side. Take some time and make sure you remember what goes where.

- Remove adjustment spring (thin spring, from a hole on the shoe to a metal bracket on the adjustment gear). Remove upper return spring, this is hell btw. Remove lower return spring. Press in and turn retaining clip and remove. Remove wave washer from the parking brake.

- Resurface the drums, or sand in a circular motion. If any grooves are present, resurface. Clean everything with brake cleaner.

- Use high temp grease on the dismantled adjuster assembly threads, and on the contact points for the shoe.

- Place one shoe in position, and clip in with the retaining clip. The Haynes manual doesn't say to do this. Trust me, it's far easier to try and move the shoe a little bit with the retaining clip on than to try and hold things in position all the time.

- Move the adjuster assembly with upper return spring into position. The short hook of the spring will go on the parking brake side, with the hook outwards. This is the end to pull. The long hook will go under the shoe, obviously you hook this one first. The end closest to the adjuster gear obviously goes on the adjuster bracket side.

- Put on the retaining clip for the other shoe, with the adjuster assembly (hopefully) mounted correctly between the two shoes. You may want to expand the adjuster assembly first to keep it from falling down.

- Hook in the upper return spring. This part of the whole procedure is by far the worst, you will have to get a friend to push and hold the shoe you are pulling the upper return spring to or you will pop the cylinder out and have to bleed that end of the brakes (don't ask).

- Hook in the lower return spring. Mount the adjustment bracket. Hook in the adjuster spring. With new shoes, I found I had to almost completely screw the adjuster assembly to its closed position to get the drum back on.

- Replace the drum. Check brake pressure, bleed brakes if the cylinder ever popped out during the procedure. Check the parking brake, adjust the nut under the parking brake console at 1 click and get some drag if it's too loose.

Voila! After I ditched the Haynes procedure, things went (comparatively more) smoothly.

fw190bvi

have urban put it in the guide...............we need to get on the ball w/ that and clean/finish it up........