Rear brakes

[wobpb377]

Well I'm starting to work on the 02after two years on blocks. Some medical issues hindered me from working on it but they are all but gone so back to the garage. Plus we are moving in two months so I need it driveable by then.

I am stumped on the brakes. It looks like I have everything in the right place but the drum won't slide on. Any thoughts? The ebrake is removed and the hub for easy (cough) install on the "W" spring.

Thanks.

[cj]

I know this is obvious and I'm not trying to sound like an ass but, did you compare the old shoes to the new ones?

To add, are the shoe adjusters(2 17mm nuts on the backside of the backing plate) adjusted in toward the axle?

[Guest Anonymous]

Be sure the parking brake adjusters between the front seats are Very loose with No tension activating/pulling on the rear brakes.

[Dev02]

When I did mine the drum didn't fit, then I turned the adjusters all the way in, then it slid on. After everything was set I adjusted them to specs. For me my new shoes were much thicker than my old worn down ones.

[wobpb377]

The car is in resto mode. No ebrake installed. Put in new cables and still need to hook up the handle. The 17mm adjusters were put towards the top--read that somewhere. And no longer have the old stuff. It was disposed of over two years ago.

[Napes]

When you do get it all back together, and we're confident you will, here is an excellent tutorial on adjusting the rear brakes and e-brakes.

http://www.zeebuck.com/bimmers/tech/rearbrakes.html

My one suggestion to this procedure is that instead of using lengths of copper pipe to tighten up the drums get eight SAE 7/8" nuts and slide them on over the studs. The chamfer on the inside of the nuts allows the lug nuts to nest nicely in order to tighten them down.

Bob Napier

[tim385]

Are you using your original brake drums?Bleeder screws undone?Slots lined up ..brake shoes and wheel cyl(roll back the boot and look). I didnt realise this before I did my rear brakes , but I intended using the rear drums off my parts car as they were fairly new ,but inside the drums is a size usually it refers to the amount it can be machined out to . So the ones that didnt fit my car had "Max 231mm" the ones that did fit had "Max 236mm" Dont know why but the others fitted fine , maybe they were machined out more . I should have measured both but I didnt . Other than ......grinding a bit of metal out of the ends (where it goes into the wheel cyl ..or the other end,)I dont know what the answer is but the 231 drum in my case would not fit on at all even with every thing backed off to max .

[wobpb377]

I believe the drum did have 231 labeled on it. I will look again tonight. Ill see if I can source the larger one out here on island if in fact thats the case.

But does everything look to be correctly installed? The spring at the top and what not?

TIA

[Dev02]

Everything looks like mine did, but some stuff is hard to see. The weird plate under the upper spring I believe only goes in one way...? Also, my ebrake arm wasn't out as much as yours is in the picture. Maybe verify that it is as released as possible and turn your adjusters all the way to the inside?

If you started with those drums then they should fit if everything is setup correctly.

And yeah, that "W" spring SUCKS to put back on.

[wobpb377]

Thanks--i'll relook at it this afternoon. The ebrake cable isnt even hooked up to the handle. Theres no tension on the cable at all. I was curious about the clip at the top--i was looking on realoem and the reprinted repair manual and both are hard to tell how they exactly fit in there. I have an extra set of rear trailing arms and I verified that it all looks the same. Has anyone else heard about the two different drum sizes like someone else mentioned. Just a quick search and it seems I can only find the 230mm drums.

[Napes]

The measurment listed on the drums refers to the max. i.d. before they need to be replaced. Re: if your drums say max. 231mm and you measure the i.d. and it exceeds 231mm, then they need to be replaced with new drums. That is obviously not the "new" i.d. I don't know what the original i.d. is on a max. 231mm drum. Maybe someone else does.

This is why I try to run new drums on old shoes for as long as I can. New shoes with new drums, at the same time, makes things really tight.

Bob Napier

[wobpb377]

Success with the assistance of a SFH. They are just really tight and who doesn't like something tight

[JETK1]

I am new to this site(relatively) and about to do the rear drums, shoes and wheel cylinders on my 1975 2002. 

I have read a lot of the tips on installing the shoes and W spring, etc. What is the best way to remove the W spring to get started?

[steve k.]

I made my own spring removal/installer tool by taking an old very large fat screwdriver and adding a cut down the middle of the blade, this lets me grab the spring to pull it off the brakes and also easy to install it. 

 

steve 

[JETK1]

OK Steve 

Thank you for that. I have seen photos of a large flat bladed screwdriver  pushed vertically down behind the part that drops into the hole on the shoe. It looks like it then gets twisted and that forces the end of the spring out of the hole.  Doable?

 

Jim

 

1975 2002-second owner.