In this video, we're gonna be going over mistakes you can make when doing drum brakes.
If you ever go to do rear drum brakes and you see one of these clips on there and you've
got 133,000 miles on it, well, let me tell you this much, you better stop and order everything
because those drums are done.
This is its factory clip that they put on so the rotors...the drum, I mean.
So the drum stays on on the axle while it goes down the assembly line.
That's the only reason for this clip and no other.
And if you know someone that puts these back on, they got more time on their hands.
So, this is what you do.
Take it off, throw it away.
That's what you do with that.
You don't put it back on.
This truck has 133,000 miles.
This is gonna be
a nightmare.
So, when I said the drum is done and I said if you see that clip, you gotta replace everything
inside, well, look at this mess.
It is a ball of rust.
Look at this drum.
It's almost as sharp as a razorblade.
It's so thin.
This part of it rides on the outside of the element, so that's where all the water and
the rust fling around.
Like I said, this is an '02 with 133,000 miles on it, so this thing has seen every kind of
weather season you can imagine.
There's nowhere for this to have a good, smooth surface for brand-new brake shoes to ride
on and you can't cut and turn these in a drum lathe, there's no metal left.
It literally is like rice paper.
So now we got the drum off, let's see what kind of mess we got here.
Well, first thing is we have the old-fashioned shoes.
The type that have the rivets in it.
You don't really see those anymore.
The rivets are kinda obsolete.
They make them completely bonded so that it's just one pad glued on to each bracket, metal
bracket.
So now I have a wheel cylinder in this.
Yeah, drums come with wheel cylinders.
And this thing is leaking.
You can tell it is.
It's got fluid coming out of each boot.
You can just take a screwdriver if you need to and you can just pop the back.
Oh, yeah, look at that.
That wheel cylinder is wasted.
I'm not gonna be like, "I don't need that."
What?
You're gonna need that.
It's not really doing its job and that fluid will get on your new brake shoes.
What's gonna happen then?
Not good.
Cables, shoes.
Look at this.
They're all rotted.
There's so much rust on here I can't tell where it stops and begins.
Very common, people don't replace the slack adjustor cable or the adjustor cable.
They see it frayed, has a couple of metal pieces, strands, and they're like, "I didn't
buy it.
I'm not going down to the store and buying it again.
I'm putting it all together.
Just gonna take it out."
Well, that's needed because if that's not there, it's not making adjustment as you step
on the brakes and these shoes expand out, it won't turn the star adjustor, which is
your adjustment, which makes the pedal proper height, proper braking.
If that's gone, this doesn't move, doesn't cause the adjustment, pedal stops going to
the floor.
You don't see it right away because you are in it all day long so you just live with it.
Oh, yeah.
Come on, rust.
I like destruction.
It's fun like in construction.
Man, you just tear it all apart.
Whoo.
Yeah.
I forgot to take a picture.
Man, I can't believe I didn't even have my glasses on.
Yeah, glasses are important on a situation like this.
Brake dust everywhere, rust flying everywhere, springs.
It's not a pretty sight, but it's really important to take a picture of how it assembles before
you take it apart.
Back in the day, I always say that like it's a wagon wheel, but we didn't have cameras
in our pocket.
We literally do one side and sometimes when we were younger, go over and check and come
back, check and come back.
That's a good way to do it, but don't forget, you've got the world's greatest item right
in your pocket.
It's a camera.
Take a picture of it.
That way you'll know where the springs go.
You won't misalign the springs.
The shoes will be installed correctly, and it'll be a safe way to go down the road.
I wonder if this wheel cylinder is any good.
I bet I can hold that in.
Hey, Pete, step on it.
All right.
What the...
Pete, stop.
Oh, man.
Wheel cylinders.
They run off of hydraulic pressure.
That's what the brake fluid is.
Sealed system, over 3,000 PSI sometimes just in pistons alone.
Don't think you can hold that back.
Another common mistake, you forgot to put the drum on.
You finished the other side and you're like, "I wanna feel how the brakes feel."
You pump it up.
That's what's gonna happen.
You're gonna blow that wheel cylinder right out.
The drums are what holds the shoes seated in that wheel cylinder, and without the drums
there, it goes away.
Now I gotta do a wheel cylinder.
Man, that's pretty rusted on there.
I'll get it with these.
Oh, man.
What's happening?
Why won't this break free?
That's it.
Common mistake, locking pliers.
You have just now destroyed the heck out of that fitting.
Now you gotta go down to the hardware store, the parts store, and hope that they have the
proper fitting.
Just use the proper tool, it's called a tubing wrench.
That's what it looks like, tubing wrench.
It goes on there, fits in there snug and it breaks that free.
So, spraying it down with a really good penetrating spray, that will help you too, especially
on these rusty lines like this.
More than likely when you see this kinda rust, you are gonna have to replace this line.
But let's go for it.
Oh, forgot to take the boot off.
That's pretty important.
The reason why you wanna put a boot back on is because it keeps the road dirt, and salt,
and everything, the grime out of that bleeder screw.
You could just leave that boot off and then not even six months down the road need to
bleed your brakes for some reason and that thing is gonna be clogged up with sand.
So, yeah.
A little bit of heat after your penetrating spray.
But you gotta concentrate.
Make sure you get the area.
Yeah, sometimes you do need to use heat to get the steel line out of the wheel cylinder,
but don't forget, you heat up that wheel cylinder too long, the seals blow just like New Years
Eve celebration.
Fluid everywhere.
Yeah, now I have to use locking pliers because I started out that way.
So, I rounded off that fitting, but with just that five seconds of heat you saw after I
sprayed it with penetrative spray, look at that.
Start off doing the right thing in the first place and you won't mess it up.
Okay.
So now we successfully got the line off without breaking it.
So, that's cool.
It's kinda all gnarlied up there, but we'll make it work.
Oh, yeah.
I don't think I should just let that drip out everywhere.
I like to keep the little plastic boots around so now I can not make so much of a mess.
All right, let's just get this wheel cylinder out of here.
Man.
Why does everything gotta be so rusted?
Oh, I got that one.
Oh, yeah.
Right tool for the right job.
Oh, man.
I just put this brake job together.
I'm not taking it apart.
No way.
Don't be that dude.
Listen, you gotta take the brake back off.
You can't get the wheel cylinder out and you gotta coat your brand-new shoes with the fluid.
So, just take your tools, take your time, and do it right.
Boy, oh, boy.
So, if a wheel cylinder does explode and get brake
fluid on the inside, hopefully it doesn't get on the bonding part, because that does
ruin the shoes.
Just take some part spray cleaner.
Let's get rid of that fluid before we reinstall a new one.
Man, I hate getting these lines in, you gotta fight with them.
Yeah, that's started, right?
Okay, Pete.
Let's check for leaks.
Oh, no.
Whoa, whoa, Pete, hold on.
I cross threaded the line.
This is what happens when you rush a job.
Oh, man.
Now because I messed up that fitting with the locking pliers and then I stripped it
going in, I gotta make a new line.
And that's never the fun part of doing brakes.
Always drum brakes because of the wheel cylinder.
You know, flex hoses on calipers are easy.
Steel lines, now I gotta do a tubing.
I'm gonna say three feet.
That'll work.
Yeah.
That'll work.
Now, I cut it a little too long, but I don't have time to be cutting and flaring this all
over again.
I'm just gonna mount it someplace and make sure that it's secure.
All right, everybody.
All joking and kidding aside, this is not how you run a brake line.
And I didn't do this on purpose thinking no one would ever do this.
This came straight out of a memory I have from a vehicle coming in my shop.
Someone ran a brake line like this and I thought for sure they were, like, messing with me,
and I went out and talked to them and I'm like, "Did you do this on purpose to see if
I'd notice it?"
And they were like, "What?
I just put a brake line in."
So, there are people out there.
So, be careful.
Obviously, you've got to do the job right.
Do it once, do it right.
So, I purposefully left this wheel adjustor at the lowest point it can be.
It's not adjusted at all.
Look how freely this is spinning.
Then on this one, I adjusted it snug.
I can barely turn it.
So, the proper way to do it is really to start at the e-brake cables.
So, there are no e-brake shoes other than the actual shoes themselves.
They're used as e-brake, parking brake, or the braking shoes.
So, the adjustor is way down there.
This is the parking brake cable adjustor.
It is adjusted almost...it is, right?
Literally at the end of its adjustment.
So, the proper way to do the shoe adjustment is to back this off so that the cable has
slack in it.
No tension at all.
That is the proper way right out of automotive repair school.
So, I don't think this is gonna move.
As you can see, look at the thread.
There's nothing here.
But we're gonna just spray it real quick and hope we can soak in enough that we're gonna
get that adjustment to loosen up.
I could barely turn that before.
That goes to show you that the e-brake cable plays a huge part in the adjustment of your
drum shoes.
So, proper way to adjust them.
Make sure that e-brake cable is slack.
There's nothing on it.
No tension at all.
Then you're gonna come back here and you're gonna adjust these so they do almost one complete
turn.
Sometimes one and a half turns or one and a quarter turns.
Then you're gonna adjust that e-brake cable and you'll be ready to go.
Hey.
Hope you had fun watching this video.
We sure the heck had fun making it.
I know that we showed you some bad things and good things that can happen with brake
shoes.
If you are not a subscriber, please subscribe.
Don't forget to ring that bell, it turns up all your notifications so you won't miss any
more fun.