Have you watched these:

P1


P2


When it talks about a brake spring tool - a big flathead screwdriver or even needle nose pliers work just fine. I've used both.

 

Well After MANY Hours of sitting there, Cussing & scratching my head, wondering how the heck this is done, an old friend popped up and went at my brakes for about 2 hours and finally got it, he says to me "if i had the kit to do this, we woulda been done 6 beers ago!!!", He put the P/S back together somehow without anything falling out.......

The truck brakes much much much better, and i have yet to do the D/S, the side with the worn out crumbling pad, Which is locking up, im gonna let my dad handle that one in exchange for replacing the engine harness in his Ranger, I promise you guys i aint touchin drum brakes ever again, not happenin

 

We have the drum brake tool, about 18" long, man it makes things easy.

The fact that your P/S side detonated but D/S did not, tells you that your D/S wheel cylinder or brake line is collapsed. You'll find out when you replace the wheel cylinder, and can't bleed that corner because nothing comes out.

 

Whoooooaaaa After watchin the videos, uhmmmmmmmmmm A whole bunch of stuff is backwards, but thats how the other side looks too, so i was just going by how it came apart,

i will also make a stop at AZ or another place and see if i can borrow the spring tool to put the pin in place, that is what made is one hell of a time, i mean, One hell of a time...

 

This takes me back . . .first set of drums I ever did was on a 63 Corvair (wheel bearings let go just like Ralph Nader said they would.) And I did them backwards. I think my Dad actually paid to have them fixed properly @ Montgomery Wards, and the nice man let me watch. Geez, that was like 45 years ago.

BTW, I've never had the luxury of a second set of hands.

The good news. . .the learning curve isn't terribly steep AND it does get easier. Trying to be encouraging here. . . think of this is an investment. Not a physical one, but an experience one. You only do a mechanical thing the first time once. After that you have a memory of how it's supposed to go.

I don't know about now, but it used to be that those brake spring tools were available in the cheap tool bins. I think mine cost about $3.99 some 20 years ago. I can tell you it was worthless on the 15" brakes on my motorhome, but on a Geo Tracker or Chevy Sprint it made brakes easy peasy.

A life time lesson from an almost senior citizen (tho not quite yet) is that the more you do the more you can do. (And if you invest in decent tools, they can last a lifetime.)

 

I don't like doing my rear brakes but cant see paying $150 to get them done its never easy but I prefer to do it myself.

Good thing is its only every 5 or 6 years and I have never had the luxury of an extra pair of hands also.

I have never use the spring tool a good pair of vise grips work great for extracting the springs snap lock pull its off for the shoe hold downs I use a pair of needle nose pliers or just pliers of the proper kind.

I don't like having a bunch of special tools hanging around collecting dust/rust.

 

Have a laugh doing brakes with no tools this guy must have some thick callused hands to do this.

 

i picked up a HFT Brake tool set, and i finally got the pins in place to hold the pads in, and then i had to pretty much have the laptop next to me to do the brakes, took me a good bit, but i got it, and the truck is braking perfectly

 

So what was going on a locked cylinder or improperly installed brakes?

The one tool I may get is the Brake Shoe Retaining Spring Tool as pushing in the spring and twisting with pliers sucks a special tool for this is worth having.

 

^ That tool is why i bought the brake tool set

it had to be the cylinder that was bad, fluid was flowing fine, as for being together wrong, i pulled it apart damn quick and just went by the youtube video putting it back together