my girlfriend has a 97 breeze (stratus) with rear drums. she recently told me the rear brakes have been making noise for a while (little late huh?) and i need to put new shoes in.
now i'm pretty good with cars, i've replacced several motors by myself, but i've never done drum shoes before.
a coworker said that there would be an access hole on the back of the drum that i can get into and spin that little gear to retract the shoes. i only saw 2 holes about the size of a bottle cap or smaller, and both were obstructed by suspension parts so i couldnt really see in them. is that what i'm looking for?
p.s., the rear also makes noise for a few seconds after the brakes are let up, does that mean it needs new brake springs too?

thanks
any help, pic, tutorials, etc would help me make her car safe again.

 

the hole you are looking for is about 1 inch long and 3/8 high with a rubber plug in it.
But hopefully you can get the drums off without fussing with that - I rarely have to loosen that anyway.

I don't think you need new springs just yet, maybe, but probably not. Drum brakes are slow to retract.

The important thing is to set the proper amount of drag on the new shoes.
This is when you need to get to that access hole.
Use a flat screwdriver to adjust the star-wheel until you can hear a light drag as you spin the tire by hand.

 

i remember there being 2 holes per drum, do you know which hole? i think there was one towards the front of the car (3 o'clock as looking at the back of the rotor), and one at the bottom. and do you know which way to turn the wheel to retract the shoes (clockwise/counter clockwise).
i did get the drum to pull off by about 1/8", but as soon as i let go it would suck back into normal position, so i assume the shoes are holding it.
thanks.

 

bump for info

 

ah the joys of drum breaks haha. I had a 76 Jeep Cj-7 that needed all new sets of drum breaks. It had drums all around. It was nasty. THe rears froze on me so all I had was my fronts. Basically to get my rears off was heat them up with a torch and beat it with a hammer until you get it off. Now just make sure there is no fluid if you decide to heat it up. Drums are a pain in the butt. The one hole the guy was talking about is a release from what I remember. You can use a flathead on that to release the drum but honestly you shouldn't need to use that to get it off. Just brute force. And before you do anything else with it, buy a haynes manual for the car. Very cheap but tells you how to do everything on it. Trust me it makes life a lot easier.

 

I just did drums on my 97 Strat and they weren't that bad. I also found that one of the wheel cylinder boots was torn so I had to change those as well. Not a big deal. When you get a set of shoes, make sure you get a hardware kit too (about $15). It will come with all the new springs you need. I found my springs were pretty well shot. Don't forget to lube the contact points of the shoe with the backing plate and the pivots of all the moving parts of the shoe mechanisms. I found that putting the springs on first then installing the shoes was easier than trying to stretch the spring across while the shoes were already installed. Get a Haynes manual - about $20 and worth its weight in gold as there are many techniques and photos to help you. Shouldn't be a blig deal.

Good luck.

taco