so... fer starters, I'm on my way up north next weekend, and figured now is a great time to do an oil change and brake job.

first off, how much did you guys pay in parts for your last brake job? I hadn't been expecting it, but this one ran me about $170 for a set of pads shoes and new drums. turns out the 9" drums are $20 cheaper than the 10's... **sigh**

secondly... I got the rears done this after noon, and I had to do quite a bit of pounding to get the drums on. I know they're supposed to be tight, but i'm pretty sure theyre too tight. my reasoning being... the very potent burning smell, lack of acceleration, the fact that going around the block put my temp gauge past half, and that i burnt my finger (dead skin now) when i checked the heat on the drums. yeah that wasn't the brightest thing to do... but I own a soldering iron, so nothing new there.

the only issue here, is that in order to get the drums on as it was, i had to close the adjustment piece as far as possible... How do I loosen the shoes ever so slightly, as to prevent these things from happening?

 

something's not right.
you should have to turn the adjusters all the way in.
you should not have to beat the drums on.
they should not be smelling and dragging.

you need to pull them back off and compare the new shoes to the old ones to see if they are the same or not.

don't take off on a trip with them not right. you'll get stranded somewhere, probably not very far away.

 

would bleeding the lines possibly relieve pressure on the cylinder? both the old shoes and drums were quite thin.

 

no, i don't think so. bleeding simply removes air, flushes lines, and expands everything out tight (rather than loose).

your could pushing in on the wheel cylinders. if they compress any, then the fluid has to move back toward the master cyl, or you could crack the bleeders a tad and expel it.

if you jack it up, how much effort does it take to spin the wheel. should take only a little, with a light scrape.

 

LOL. if you can get the drums back off now screw the adjuster all the way in and then adjust it out where there is a slight drag on them when you turn them

 

Just don't drive the truck until winter time. Than, use the heat generated from the rear brakes to heat the house!

I'd double check the old vs. new parts. And that adjusting screw. I'll have to check back to see the results before I dive into my rear brakes!

 

well after taking the wheels off and putting them on about 7 times, I found that it was the parking brake. it must be snapped somewhere. I'm thinking the old shoes and drums must have been worn enough that i didn't notice, and they engaged with the new ones. I removed the bracket on either side, and installed a new spring kit, and now they have no problem. slapped the drums back on, and adjusted them for a little drag, and now they're fine. one side gets a little hot still, but I think that will probably wear off pretty soon, if not, I'll loosen it before I leave.


-bad, I had them all the way in lol, but that was the first thing I checked.

-dodgerules, That's a great idea, only I'll be living on campus (in houghton mi. none the less) this winter, So either I will either decide to hibernate, or they have some really good heating up there!


I also was pleasantly surprised to find that the front pads looked nearly new (the guy I bought it from said they were less than a year old, and used loaded calipers instead of just replacing the pads). hopefully advanced will take my return and I'll have 35 bux back in my pocket

Is it weird there was no core charge on the drums?

 

lol, my bad, i just read the post quick the first time, i was mistaken with the "close far as possible part".

 

I paid no core on my drums or rotors.
The only brake parts I paid a core on was the calipers, master cylinder, and brake booster.

 

drums and rotors are cast, then turned to size. once they wear down below specs, then they cannot be rebuilt and they're just scrap.

calipers, water pumps, master cylinders, heads, etc can be rebuilt.