@mazar83 The backing plate had a knock out and I had bought the rubber plugs too but actually never knocked it out and never used the plugs. The drum came off and just adjusted the shoes by measuring them as described before. Broke my spring tool too and still sitting in my tool box. That was like 25 years ago though and all I’ve done is disc brakes since then. I do believe though the problem might be that adjuster arm not letting the wheel turn as others have mentioned. The other folks know a lot more than I do though.
The heads can be cut off the retaining pins to release the shoes.
I agree, but you’d better have that hardware kit in the palm of your hands, before you do that
So many times, the parts store guy says they have something in stock, but the shelves are bare
Found this video. A somewhat unique rear brake:
The car in the video has the shoes held in place with a trap spring and the adjuster indexes outward incrementally to prevent the pistons being pushed back beyond allowing the wheel to turn freely. I believe there is an acces hole on the drum/hub to allow releasing the adjuster when needed.
It is a good idea to have every piece of hardware that is on the brakes before dismantling. It’s much easier to carry back unneeded peices for a refund than to run back hoping to find needed pieces. And it always seemed best to rebuild wheel cylinders any time the shoes were replaced. It’s such a cheep and simple job that avoids monumental failure soon after putting the car back on the road.
That rear brake setup is VERY common on several GM vehicles, including some trucks
I found it highly amusing that this professional mechanic is not using the special tools to do the job. There are special tools to deal with those horseshoes shaped springs. They’re available on virtually all tool trucks that stop by the shop. They make the job MUCH easier, and they’re not even very expensive
Makes me wonder if this guy even knows about the tool(s) . . . or maybe he wants to show how do the job with tools the average DIY guy might have at home
I have also found that the points on the adjuster can get rounded off by repeated attempts to turn it with a brake wrench or screwdriver or whatever . I would get the hardware kit & cut the pins as Rod Knox mentioned .
I also use a grinding stone in an electric drill & carefully remove the lip out of the drum that’s keeping the drum from coming off now . If you take your time & be careful you can grind that lip out without damaging the drum where the shoes contact it .
I assumed that the mechanic was making an effort to demonstrate doing the work with the kind of basic tools that a good DIYer would have. And as for that spring, can’t that spring be attached to the shoes and then installed as a unit? It’s been quite a while and I don’t recall doing many exactly like that.
And as for cutting the ridge off the drums. Back in my DIYer days I mounted grooved drums backwards on a drive axle and with the wheel turning cut the ridge down with a heavy rounded file then smoothed it with crocus cloth… Those were the good ole days of Ford Falcons and Plymouth Valiants.
Hey who needs tools when you’ve got a couple screw drivers and a vice grip. That old Pontiac in the background is the same color as my 59 was. Canyon Copper. I think its a Pontiac or maybe Olds.
My father’s '66 Ford Galaxie 500 clearly had the wrong brake backing plate installed on the right front wheel. Adjusting the brakes on the other 3 wheels was simplicity itself, but I had to go to extreme measures in order to adjust the brakes on that right front wheel, where the access hole didn’t line-up with the adjuster wheel. Adjusting the brake on that wheel wasn’t easy, but it was do-able.
“Hey who needs tools when you’ve got a couple screw drivers and a vice grip”
If you use a Vise-grip, you can get a much better grip on your vices…as well as other things.
;-))
As my eyes get weaker looking for a socket these days is real pain. There are 3 drawers full of metric and SAE sockets, short medium and long, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4 drive, standard and impact, and flex sockets of all those varieties. It’s hard to recall why I ever really needed all those varieties but I’m too cheap to spend good money on tools that aren’t profitable so I must have needed them at one time. When reading a problem posted here I usually wonder what the troubled poster has in his/her tool box or maybe it’s a shoe box. And what visions of MacGyver are dancing in their head.
Twice in the past decades working on friends too long ignored drum brakes that refused to come off and got frustrated trying to work the adjuster a mile- I just removed the heads on the retaining pins and pulled the whole works off at once. The pins are cheap…
Does this design even have those retaining pins?
Yes my garage is a mess but once in a while I go on an organization kick to make things easier on myself. One thing I’ve done is color code all my sockets with a dab of paint on the top. Blue for metric and red for SAE. Then I’ve got them all lined up on those metal holders from small to large and mounted on my peg board. So regular size metric and SAE 3/8 and 1/4. Long metric and SAE. 1/2 sockets, etc. Makes it easy to find the right size by just sticking the bolt in the various sockets and also makes it instantly obvious if I haven’t put one back. On the black impact sockets, I ended up just using a white paint pen to write the size on it so I can read it without a magnifying glass.
Yeah I had to just go out and buy some full sets to be done with it and I’m still finding loose sockets laying around.
As noted previously I recall custom bending screwdriviers to do the job mostly in the 1" ro 2" range, the notch idea is good, lucky they were old screwdrivers, not sure if new ones will bend or break.
OP, be aware that if you are inadvertently turning the adjuster in the “tighten” direction, it might be impossible to turn it no matter what you do b/c the shoes are already almost against the drum. So make sure you are turning it in the “loosen” direction. On my Ford truck, may or may not apply to your GM, even tho the truck’s shop manual says that little tab has to be pushed to turn the adjuster in the “loosen” direction, that’s not actually the case. The adjuster will turn whether or not I push on the tab, just a little easier to turn the adjuster if I push on it is all. One final thought, sometimes those adjusters rust and completely lock up. When that happens I have to spray some penetrating fluid on it and let it sit a couple of days before it will turn.
Where’s Rick the drum brake fan? Maybe he could help resolve this.
@Bing Rick is busy replacing power poles that have been knocked down by run-away trucks.
I’m sure Rick wouldn’t have too much to add to this discussion
We’ve already given OP some good advice
Wasn’t Rick trying to figure out a way to keep a drunk driver’s truck . . . which had wiped out on his property . . . as a means of reducing the cost to repair his fence or something along those lines?