My rex has suffered from poor braking since I got it but I have done little to overhaul the brakes until now. I turned my attention to the rear drums (mine is an 88) today and I have some questions. First, is there a marker on the drum itself for me to see if it is too badly worn, or do I need to take it to a brake shop and have it measured. My old shoes still had some material left so I don't see any damage but I can't tell the thickness. Second, how do you evaluate the cylinder? Neither of mine leak and they seem to be in proper working order, but one of them separated during the swap and puked brake fluid all over me . I know they're cheap, but I don't want to have to replace anything that doesn't need it. Finally, who is a good source for OEM drums for an 88 CRX?
These questions may belong in the CRX forum, but I figured I would start here since I only care about track use. Thanks for any info. BTW, I have a helms manual but it covers the 91 CRX which doesn't have the rear drums. I hate to buy a new book just for the few parts that are different in the 88.

 

I continued to run the drums on my cars because as i've mentioned before, I think they do as good or better a stopping job as the little rear discs. I don't know the bax turning ID for the drum, it may be cast in the face of the drum. If you have plenty of friction material left on both ends, I'd keep using them and just adjust them up regularly (at least before each track weekend) to assure they are working to potential. I'd be concerned if the wheel cylinders puked out fluid, I think they cost like $8 new from AutoZone. I have never bought new drums but the Zone again is probably fine and cheap for as little work as they do.

 

The max diameter should be stamped on the inside of the drum face. The shoes can go down to a min of 1mm of lining (but i'd change them before they got this far down.) Make sure you adjust like Lee mentioned, I do it quite regularly.. As for the wheel cylinders, just 'peel' back the boot a bit, if its dry you should be ok, as long as you dont see excessive moisture in there, and push the tops of the shoes with your palm going both directions, to make sure they're not seized, if it slides back and forth you should be good. And also dont forget to lube your backing plates.

 

I'd go ahead and replace the springs and cylinders - it should cost less than $100 for all the bits. Have a shop measure the drums - but they rarely wear out.

 

Thanks for the input, guys. The max diameter IS stamped on the face of the drum (I forget what it is) but that requires having someone measure it. I just wondered if there was a wear indicator somewhere inside. I guess I'll have them measured and turned as necessary. The braking surface looked pretty clean with a small ridge on the innermost surface where it looks like the shoe doesn't contact. I know that they don't wear out frequently, but because these are of unknown origin/history (came with the car and could be original for all I know) I want to make sure they're good.

I replaced the springs and shoes yesterday with OEM parts. Both cylinders looked fine with no leaking on surrounding parts or into the little rubber boots. They moved freely in every direction and I have no reason to suspect that they're bad. The passenger side cylinder dumped some fluid when one of the shoes was removed, allowing the other shoe to push the cylinder all the way out the other end. There's nothing keeping it from sliding out except for the shoe itself. I replaced the spring and piston along with the boot and everything is back to looking great with no leaks. I just need to bleed them (ran out of sunlight). Should I be concerned about this? If they're really only $8 each I'll just replace them for peace of mind. I was thinking they were more like $35-40 based on some online sources I looked at. Maybe that's OEM.

 

The rear drum adjustment on my 85 CRX is very critical to how the brake pedal feels when on track. I run Honda rear shoes currently and have run Napas before with no difference in feel.

I would make sure to adjust the shoes before every session or every other on track session to make sure they fit pretty tight to the drum. We make sure that the drums spin about a turn or so when spun by hand before they stop. It usually takes only a click or two to adjust correctly.

Good luck

 

Same here, I have a 94 DX with rear drums. I use Raybestos shoes and perform adjustments after each session at Laguna and every other session at Sears and THill. For me it's about 6 clicks of the star gear.

 

Well I ran by Autozone today and here's what I found out. The wheel cylinders range from $12.99 to $16.99 so at that price I plan to replace them both just for peace of mind. As for the drums, the AIMCO drums are $18.99, while the Raybestos drums are $52.99. Why the huge price difference? Are the Raybestos drums cross-drilled and slotted? LOL! At $18.99 I'll replace both and start fresh, but for over $50 a pop I'll try to salvage my current drums. Does anyone think it's worth the extra money?

And a question on adjustment. From session to session I had no trouble doing the adjustment. However, after replacing the shoes and spinning the star all the way down to get the thicker shoes in place, what's a good method for doing large adjustments? Anyone use the parking brake, or should I just spin the star a few dozen times until I get contact?

Thanks again for the help. Stoopid drums.

 

Some CRXs had alum drums - maybe the higher price was for the alum replacements? I don't remember if any Si had alum, it may have been only the HF.

 

I think that was only the HF, making it illegal for me. The Autozone guy suggested that the Raybestos drums were simply "heavy duty." I got the impression that he never sold anything but the AIMCOs and seemed surprised that I even asked about the other ones. Even after I told him what the car was used for he seemed content with the AIMCOs, but he wasn't very convincing.

*EDIT*

Actually, the price slip he printed for me says 88 Civic CRX 1.6L FI, which excludes the non-Si models so these are Si parts. Still doesn't explain the price difference.


[Modified by travis, 3:20 PM 4/2/2003]

 

FWIW, I remember paying about $40 for a new pair of drums at NAPA. As for the large adjustment, when I rebuilt mine, I had the drum off and spun the gear a bunch until the drum wouldn't go back on, then backed off a bit. Put the drum back on and adjust through the access hole the rest of the way.

$.02

 

After each adjust, put drum back on and go pump pedal x3 to recenter shoes. you want a noticeable slight drag( feel and hear) not a heavy hard-to-turn drag. They will expand on track from usage and if they bind the shoes WILL disitegrate. Don't ask how I know. Aimco is fine ."Heavy Duty " is BS.You are paying for the name.
Aluminum were hf only, and as you said, not legal in SCCA/NASA.
BTW, learn to race without brakes. Much faster. Most of the time...
Wildman

 

LOL! My brakes don't work. What do you think I've been doing!?

Anyway, thanks for the info. If the AIMCO brand is fine for drums, I'm just going to go replace them both. That will give me fresh drums, cylinders, springs, and shoes. That should cover it, no? At least until the bearings go

As for the adjustment, it sounds like I'm just going to have to crank that star until they make contact. Right now my pedal goes to the floor so I know they're way off, but I wanted to see if there was a faster way.

 

AIMCO is an ex-sister company of KONIs before they were sold out from under the ITT corporate umbrella to Raybestos which became Dana then they went out on their own under the leadership of the same basic people who had run it all along. Basically they are not an actual manufacturer but a relabeller of commodity drums and rotors that could be sourced from several countires outside the US (Canada, China and Italy are ones I remember). I have used the AIMCO pieces for several years and knew the people who ran their QC dept. who made me happy with the quality for price.

In the last two weeks I have put AIMCO rotos on the truck and ZC CRX and have two fresh sets of rotors waiting for the racecar. They'll be fine, especially at the price. So what if they are not exactly high end pieces, if you drive on the street you probably won't really wear on them hard enough to casue issues and if you have them on the racecar then your aggressive race pads will wear them or any otehr rotor fast enough that they won't be around an extremely long time.

 

another .03 worth for you:
Rear bearings. Wheel and tire on grab tire at 9 and 3 and push/pull on it. Repeat at 12 and 6. Any movement? Replace hub. Bearings not available separately. Compare $$$ at Pep/Autozone/dealer/???
Rear, with tires off, drums off, rotate hub several times, both directions. Any roughness or binding? Replace!
Fronts. Same procedure, but have to pull calipers away and rotors off. Check before EVERY track event, At least the wheel on procedure.
Safety first, then handling, then power, all the while learning to drive better and better and better....
Wildman

 

Thanks for the info, guys. Today I picked up a set of AIMCO drums and a set of cylinders to add to the new springs and shoes. I tripple checked the bearings and I can't find a flaw anywhere. I'm sure they'll be the next to go since that's all that's left

I still didn't get a chance to bleed them since I was fighting daylight to finish the roof and the interior painting. Hopefully they'll be good to go. Thanks again for saving me some $$$.

 

I don't know about that. Drums tend to fade much quicker than discs do.

 

any tips on how to adjust thru access with drum on?

tried last night. i believe the adjuster needs to turn up to tighten.

got them to tighten up but as soon as e brake applied back to where they were.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 96 SOHC VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">&lt;BLOCKQUOTE&gt;quote:&lt;HR&gt;I continued to run the drums on my cars because as i've mentioned before, I think they do as good or better a stopping job as the little rear discs. &lt;HR&gt;&lt;/BLOCKQUOTE&gt;

I don't know about that. Drums tend to fade much quicker than discs do. </TD></TR></TABLE>

in general you are correct, but how do you feel rear drum fade?

 

I didnt quite understand the part how to check the rear wheel bearings?
When a mechanic friend of mine checked my car, he used some kind of listening device for the front wheels(like one of those doctor uses).

 

Don't help him.. He left AZ h4, he doesn't deserve a race car anymore!!!

J/K

how's life treatin ya Travis....

-Danny who can now be labeled as the ultimate thread jacking *****.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krrothwell1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">any tips on how to adjust thru access with drum on?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't remember which way to move the gear off hand, but if you take the drum off first, you can figure out which way the gear needs to go when you're working through the access hole.

 

thanks, did that last night, got it now.

 

If you want to save yourself some time, look at where the holes in the hub are, then drill a largish hole in the drum where the hole on the hub is, then you can reach the star adjuster from the front of the drum without having to take the drum off.

 

Travis:
Looks like you got everything you need for a full rebuild of the rear for now. How is FL treating you anyway? Make sure that the E-brake is off when doing the initial adjustment. As to lubing the backing plates-very important to use a high temp grease on the locating pads that the shoes rest on.