Hi,

I'm redoing the rear brakes on the 89 Civic Si I just bought. It looks like the brake parts are much more accessible with the hub off but OTOH it looks like getting the hub off will require quite a bit of work (this car is a beater and everything is rusted solid and very tight).

Can I replace the cylinders and shoes without taking the hub off? Basically I'm looking for the lesser of 2 evils here

And don't say just put in rear discs

 

yes, you can replace the cylinders and shoes without removing the hub. However, if it is rusted and beat like you say it is, it may be worth it to replace the hub, which comes with the wheel bearing in it.

You wouldn't want your new brake shoes and cylinders flying off the car because the bearing or hub failed, would you?

EDIT: I think you may be refering to the "hub" when in fact you are looking at the "drum." The hub is inside the drum..... The drum should come off with a few whacks of a BFH.


Modified by jisu009 at 1:25 PM 10/11/2005

 

It's a real easy and quick job to do. If you take off your wheel, you are gonna be looking at the brake drum like Jisu009 said. To take that off you use a hammer and tap on it a few times from top bottom and sides just to loosen up the drum. Use a bolt (forgot what size) and start bolting through the hole on the drum, this will make the drum seperate from the hub/brake assembly.

You then will see the shoes/cylinder for the brakes and you can just take them off. It's easy once you look at them. Not that hard, but hard to explain for me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jisu009 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">EDIT: I think you may be refering to the "hub" when in fact you are looking at the "drum." The hub is inside the drum..... The drum should come off with a few whacks of a BFH.
Modified by jisu009 at 1:25 PM 10/11/2005</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, I mean hub -- I've got the Haynes manual The manual says brake service is much easier with the hub removed but I'm thinking taking off that humungous nut and pulling the hub might be more trouble than it's worth. I'd have to buy a socket at the very least, and the torque on the nut would probably break my cheap ratchet.

So unless it's really really really hard to do the brakes with the hub on, I want to leave it where it is. Hub/bearing replacement will have to wait for more $$.

 

buying all this parts for rear drum brakes might be as expensive as converting your rear drums to discs then installation on rear disc is way more simple than replacing the shoes on the rear the whole time but yeah you can replace the wheels cylinder and shoes without taking the hub off

 

leave the hub on it shouldnt be too hard

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slow *** ef &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">leave the hub on it shouldnt be too hard
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