Poor brakes = Bent rear stub axle? (long)

[TobyB]

2002 Turbo rear brakes

here's a question-

do the drums center themselves tightly onto the hubs?

There's an inner step that catches the drum and centers it precisely,

and if the drum's not engaging this step, then you can get all sorts of

off- centering from just using the lug studs, which kind of sounds like

what you're getting.

Often, the drum rusts solid here- it has to be a tight fit to keep everything concentric.

It sounds like SOMETHING's not aligining itself correctly...

t

[Guest Anonymous]

Great feedback - thanks folks!

Enrique, I like your line of thought but haven't yet noticed a time when the car doesn't have this problem so I can't attribute it to temperature just yet. Not ruling it out tho!

I had the same problem with on again off again dragging rear brakes. I do not think it was directly temperature related. Sometimes I could push the car a few feet by leaning into the A pillar, but other times it was as though the car was on blocks.

I could adjust rear wheels (freshly turned drums and new shoes) but shortly after driving, it seemed as thought the brakes were dragging - and not necessarily the rears. In fact, I suspected the fronts! I rebuilt the calipers and even swapped the master cyl for an new one from a 6 cyl. to eliminate these as causes. Even ran stainless clad flex hoses. When bleeding, no indication of anything wrong. Brake pedal, unlike yours, was always high and very firm. I repacked the wheel bearings and began to suspect the rear wheel bearings which were about 8 yrs old.

The one thing I did not check thoroughly was the wheel cylinders. They looked dry and clean, but they were covered with brake dust, suggesting something was dragging there. Even though I had bled the system several times and did not suspect the cylinders, it was only when I had someone tap the brake to observe the operation of the rear brakes that I noticed only one side of the cylinder was expanding. This was true with the other cylinder too!

I pulled out the cylinders I had been saving but did not think I needed and replaced the old wheel cylinders. Difference was night and day. No drag, front or rear and improved fuel economy to boot. As strange as it may seem, because of the cross redundancy of the braking system, I believe the wheel cylinders affected the front brakes as well but not to any significant degree other than when I jacked the wheels and noticed more friction than usual. Although, heat may have exacerbated the situation.

Make mine a Tuborg Hof, but I'll take a cold Lonestar, if that's all you have!