Finally back to school
so let's get down to it...
brake drums today...
these as you probably already know are usually found in the rear. you release the handbrake and slacking off the handbrake cable. you take the wheel off and in the case of the car I worked on ('97 Renault megan) you break loose and remove the axel nut as this is securing the brake drum to the hub assembly.
Take off the drum.
you will be faced with what I felt was the most complicated looking thing in the world
in short though the two brake shoes are on either side. I undid the two securing pins in the middle, prised the spring off that held the handbrake leaver to the right hand shoe and with the tension off the whole assembly everything came out quite easily.
you must however take a photo of everything unless you are Rain Man and can remember how it all went back together.
this is a pic of the shoes out. one is still attached to the handbrake cable and I just popped this loose....
Also in this pic you can see 6 little oval areas where the brake shoes sit. I cleaned these up with a small file and emery cloth and before replacement applied copper anti-seize paste.
this is of it all back together
When I put it back together I found the easiest way was to attach the bottom shoes together with the small spring and use the shoes for leverage to slot them in to position. the big top spring was a bit of a pain but I overcame this with a pair of pliers.
At this point you should also use the handbrake adjuster to back off the cable so you can fit the drum back on. keep doing it up until you have a bit of resistance when spinning the drum. tighten your handbrake cable. job jobbed
there is a ''leading'' and a ''trailing'' shoe. the leading shoe is towards the front of the car and is the one that takes the most wear.
when working out whether you need new ones..... measure the friction material and compare to spec. measure the diameter of the brake drum and compare to spec.
I found it was challenging at times especially for my first go. but alls well that ends well
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Topic: Mechanic School Blog (Read 106513 times)