Purchased cables, to replace broken cable, for the brake self adjusters, new usa NAPA frayed out of the box. Replaced. Centric shoes, pins that hold adjusters loose enough to fall out. Used pin from dead shoes and it was tight.
Wheel cylinder that caused the grief was four years old and had less that 6 k miles. Raybestos. Shoes and springs toast.
Is there a special tool for the brake springs on 2001 ram 2500 with a dana 60 and I guess bosch designed brakes? The bent nail and coil spring design was no fun to assemble. Ended up using a junk screwdriver with a notch cut in the blade to depress the coil spring, and bailing wire to maneuver the bent nail.

It's depressing when you take pride in doing things right and you have to work with second class parts. You didn't used to have to open your stuff at the parts counter. En los dias ya passado.
A good and healthy year to all.

 

You're not wrong, aftermarket stuff is always declining in quality. I just learned Wagner was part of the Apollo private equity buyout, along with brands like Moog, Monroe and FelPro. The latter three have gotten bad in recent years so I no longer trust Wagner either.

As for the tool, I think just a straight blade with a notch should get you there? PB Tools out of AU does sell a nice forked tool for springs. I love it but it's long and seems like it would not be necessary for the bent nails.

 

There is a tool for drum brakes. Have a look. Makes the job a LOT easier.

 

I can't see the traditional tool helping with hooking the coiled springs to the bent nails?

 

On the end of one of the handles, there is a cup type thing for just such an occasion. I have like three or four of these layin' about, they are invaluable when doing drum brakes.

 

Hmm the cup that hooks over a post and spins the spring eye on or off?

I tried to find video using it for the bent nails but everything I found was guys just pushing with something like a straight blade.

Would love to learn, do you have a visual example of the tool in use for this application?

 

There is a person, Glenn who posted a you tube video that was helpful, but showed no special tool.
I found it helpful to use a clamp to hold the shoes in place. I used an awl to fit the top return spring. Vice grips on the bottom return spring.
This system was used for maybe three years before discs were 4 wheel. .

 

I do not.... When I started using these, YouTube/The internet... wasn't a thing.

 

The bent nails were all over Fords from the '70s on. So, maybe not common for Dodge but very common in the mechanical world. There's a ton of discussion on FTE

I too watched a few vids but didn't see anyone using the standard drum service pliers to hook the wrapped spring on to the bent nails.

Would be cool to know a trick, too bad HeyYou doesn't have examples. Kinda the beauty of the interweb is being able to share photos, images and vids. I remember being on email lists before digi cams were commonplace -- you'd try to describe everything in text but a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

​​​I've enjoyed this PB Tools 71150 for lower return springs where there's no post off which to lever. They're only about $25 on ebay. PBT makes nice stuff but is mostly only known in AU

The forked ends may catch the wrapped spring nicely to force it toward the backing plate to hook the bent nail? The handle can be set anywhere along the length of the shaft

The forked ends are a bit fragile and I damaged the straight one, having to re-grind it

 

You stick the bent tool thru the coiled spring,on to the free hooked arm and rotate the tool so that the spring is in tension?
Then bring the bent nail on?
Thank you. We had tried a bent pair of needle nose pliers to work the trick as well.