dresslkr

ugh. So I replaced brake lines on 97 Civic. I bled the brakes and once I got a bunch of pressure my system wasn't used to, my wheel cylinder on the drivers side popped. I replaced this, only to have it happen again once I began to bleed. Figured it was some cheap crap from autozone so I got a new one and it was the same deal. I have adjusted the drums in and out to no avail (also had the drum on while bleeding, I'm not that dumb). Still popping the wheel cylinders. I picked up a new drum since I'm not the car first owner, and thought maybe the old one had been machined too far. Also, the shoes have a little over an eight of an inch left.

What the hell is going on? I can't figure this out. Maybe I'm just terrible at adjusting the drums? But hell I've tried it 10x now at different points.

Lastly, when I had it towed home, the tow truck driver let it off the lift and I guess freaked out and really jerked the hell out of the EBrake. My EBrake does not feel like it used to even after I adjusted it. Could this be part of the issue?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I live in Cincinnati so free beer tomorrow to anyone that wants to come help, the weather is nice haha.

TomCat39

You say you replaced your brake lines. I assume you mean all of them so that also means disconnecting lines from your proportioning valve.

Are you sure you didn't run the front ports of that valve to the rear wheel cylinders?

That would automatically put too much pressure to the back wheels.

Can you describe how you went about doing your brake line replacement? This might help shed some light on where things may have gone wrong.

mk378

You must have a wrong part somewhere --- drum, shoes, or cylinder. Take the other drum off and make some measurements to compare.

The proper pre-set of the adjuster is to turn it as far out as you can and still be able to put the drum on. This makes it so the shoes are almost touching the drum when the brake pedal is not pressed. Misadjustment will not cause the cylinder to over extend though.

dresslkr

thanks for the response. I actually cut the lines up front, past the rust but before the proportioning valve, so I didn't replace the entire line.

dresslkr

yeah I'm kind of thinking the same thing as well, about a part being in the wrong place.

When i adjust the shoes out out I go as far as I can, seemingly. Still blowing the cylinder.

Thats why I'm thinking the EBrake is stuck, maybe even a little? Or something? Dunno. Thanks for the help. I'm gonna pull it all apart now.

dresslkr

mk378

The size of the shoes and the drum are what stops the cylinder from going too far. The shoes should be fully against the drum long before the pistons move all the way.

The adjuster and the ebrake don't affect that at all.

you should also consider that the whole spindle and brake assembly may be from a different car entirely. Because people do that to Civics. A very close comparison between the left and right should help.

tony_2018

Pictures would help. If the ebrake were stuck you wouldn't be able to remove the drums at all because the shoes are really pressing up against the drums.

Pic's of all the work you did please.

dresslkr

i took took a few pics. They're pending.

The new wheel cylinder looked identical to the old one.

Also I replaced the drum thinking it had been turned too far. It seemed identical to the old one.

It seems almost as if the bottom of the brake assembly is locked up in place and when the cylinder expands, the shoes arent moving at all.

I'm working on getting my other drum off now to compare. But it certainly looks like original stuff.

thanks again in advance for any advice.

dresslkr

they are pending now. Thanks

dresslkr

It's almost as if the cylinder isn't big enough? The shoes are so far apart that it blows when it gets pressure?

I have the star adjuster opened up pretty far but I am able to get the drum on and get one+ rotation with my tire on. I've replaced some of the hardware and got a new cylinder from a different store. I just feel like I'm beating a dead horse.

The shoes size says 576. Which is what my model of civic uses.

mk378

Pictures of the other side? Don't take anything apart there, just pull the drum and look and measure. It should be a mirror image of the left side.

I think the cog wheel on the adjuster goes toward the back of the car.

Can you turn the adjuster out far enough that it is not possible to put the drum on? What is the position of the adjuster and cylinder when this happens.

Take one of the shoes off and hold it against the inside of the drum, the curve should match.

dresslkr

measurement all match. Looks the same. But there is a ton more play in the shoes, on the side that keeps blowing.

I can't turn the adjuster out enough to make it not possible to put the drum on the car. I can turn the adjuster far enough to make it so the outside shoe no longer touches the cylinder.

mk378

Ah. Looking closely at one of your pictures, the bottom end of the back shoe is bent, mangled, etc== FUBAR. Put on a new set of shoes.

It looks like the block that the shoe rests on is still OK, but inspect it closely. That would require changing the whole backing plate.

BryanM.

iTrader: (1)

mk378

The very tip of the shoe frame, where it is on the block of the backing plate, note that it is bent and rolled under. The two shoes are identical, or should be. I don't know how that happened, but it did.

dresslkr

Im going to replace the shoes tomorrow. If you look at the picture there was a spring on backwards that runs across the adjuster bar. I flipped the spring. Maybe this caused the rubbing?

Do you think this rubbing would account for the cylinder overextending to the point of it getting stuck and pouring fluid?

TomCat39

mk378 has already identified why the rubbing and the improper fitment.

I am surprised you didn't notice this from the get go when you were inspecting them in person and snapping your pictures.

I enlarged your picture and circled the good tang in blue that the spring is in, and then the bent tang in red that the spring is in.

Pretty plain to see the bent tang doesn't look anything like the good tang and is pushing the shoe out from the wall and letting the wheel cylinder to over extend etc.



The right shoe where I circled in red should look exactly like the like the left shoe I circled in blue but mirrored. It doesn't, you can even see the shading in the shoe where the whole thing is bent back to the backing plate.

I also bet the black spring retainer is bent forward on the right side in comparison to the left.