Tutorial : Changing Front Brake Shoes (Drum Brakes) 1969 C10

[pbajwabb]

Pending photos...

Sorry! It will be just a moment. Also, please chime in if I am an idiot or if there is something missing

Hey guys,

I had never done any work on chevy drum brakes before prior to this so I learned A LOT from everyone before to doing it. I also had a Haynes manual which was useful. My shoes were BAD:



The first thread I made had a lot of questions answered by you guys including questions regarding jack position, whether to keep, replace, or turn the drums, etc. That thread can be found here:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=623761

I got the Haynes at Oreilly for $30 but its cheaper on amazon and ebay, I just didnt want to wait a week. This is the one I have:

Chevrolet & GMC Pick-ups, 1967 Thru 1987...
Anyways if you read the above you now should have the car on a jack and the tire off.

You will see the drum and 6 threads coming out of it. It should slide off with a little pull but if it doesn't, chances are that the brake shoes need to be brought in. There is a little slot in the drum which you can put a flathead through to move the adjusters which looks like an cog. Spin the drum until that slot it in the 5ish or 7ish Oclock position (depending on side) and peer though with a light, you should see it.

Here is the slot in the drum followed by the cog adjuster you are looking for:





If you imagine your in the drivers seat, turning this cog clockwise (I believe for drivers, counter for passenger) will loosen and bring the pads IN so the drum will come off. You may have to experiment, I dont remember exactly which way to move it, you should be able to look at it and see if the piece your moving is EXTENDING or COMPRESSING. You want this to COMPRESS to release tension on the shoes.

Okay so now the drum is off and youre looking at this asking how the hell youre going to remember how this goes back together...

TAKE PHOTOS NOW

Alright so now you have photos for reference.

I did one side in about an hour or so because I just started taking everything apart and twisting and pulling and forcing things apart which worked but it was a pain and I don't recommend it.

The second side took about 20 minutes from start to finish once I figured everything out.

So lets begin.

Youre going to see 2 compressed springs, I think Haynes calls them the "retention" springs or something. Anyways there is a pin that goes from the back of the backing plate, through the brake mechanism, through the spring, and through a plate attached to the spring. In order to get these off you need to compress the spring and turn the pin so it slides through the slot in the end of the spring (closest to you). It is about a half a turn but a giant pain in the ass.

The retention springs are at about 4 and 7 oclock

The leftmost in this photo:





What i did was get the ass end of a hammer, push the whole thing down completely and then turn the pin from the back of the backing plate until it slid out. Before this method it was taking forever! I think there is a special tool for this but I dont have the time or money to deal with more crap.

So both of the retention springs are off, now remove the spring behind adjuster on the bottom and then shimmy the adjuster out.

Now you should have 1 spring left on one side and a complicated mess on the other. Remove the one spring on the side that, well, has only one spring. Now you should be able to remove both shoes at this point. You may have to shimmy and shake but they should only be attached at the top and with the bottom spring removed, if you're careful you can slide both sides over the lip.

At this point I was able to slip both shoes over the lip up top





Now with them both off and most of the crap still attached to one shoe, simply get your replacements and move the components from one to the other. Make sure you note the length of the padding on the shoes as 1 will have less (lengthwise).



Before you begin I would make that adjuster as COMPRESSED as possible (I used a rag to hold the cog and the back of my knife to loosen the slotted end before hand turning) and then install everything just as you took it off saving the bottom spring and adjuster for last.

Once everything is over the lip on top and the retention springs are back in (pain in the ass to install) you can move to the bottom. Make sure the two pieces coming out of the master cylinder are attached to the shoe. The have slots in the top and bottom.

I used a wood clamp to hold the shoes on while I put the retention springs back in:



I put the spring on first and then the adjuster. Since the adjuster is fully compressed it is probably too short so make is as long as you need for a tight fit and then once on you can extend it outwards to make the shoes go outwards by turning the cog with a flat head screwdriver.

At this point your basically done. I just expanded the shoes until my drum wouldnt fit over them and then backed up a couple turns so it slid over.

Bolt the tire back and youre stylin'

The second half of this will continue here SO guys, what's the best way to break in new brakes? Also, what is the proper way to make sure the shoes are extended or compressed enough?