The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Brake help needed.

Here's the deal. I had a buddy that was sappose to help me do the brakes on my 61 chevy pickup but can seem to get him to show up. So I've decided to do it my self. I know how to do brakes on a vehicle with disc brakes but have never done them on drum. I have the wheel off and the truck on jack stands. Where do I go from here. Tanks for your help.

First off do only one side at a time. That way you have the other side to use as a guide/reference. If you don't have some basic brake shoe tools this might be a good time to buy some.

Basically you are going to remove the Return springs, Hold down springs and disconect the parking brake cable. Then remove the old shoes and install new ones then reverse the proceedure for reinstalling the springs.

I would strongly recomend buying all new springs. Then lay them out just as the old ones are lined up on the wheel. Your local auto parts store should be able to tell you what tools you will need and how to use them. If not find a new parts store. It is not too complicated. Good luck!

Good advise.Also You are going to need to put kits in the wheel cyls. or new cylinders. If they are not leaking now they will be after you change position of the pistons & cups. You will want to look at the master cyl. also.

Do you know anything about your brake system?

Have the lines ever been replaced?

If you are not sure, I would also take the plunge and do the brake lines. A bad time to find out they are bad is when you are piling into the back of someone/something.

If you read all of these posts, that means re-build the whole system.

First time doing drums yer gonna be awful tempted to 'talk bad'.

Once ya get the swing of it, it's easy. But that is true with most things, I guess.

-W

Get a Haynes Manual or a shop manual. You'll learn everything you need to know and more. Plus, they come with lots of pictures.

Lots of good advice here. I can only add a few things based on experience. Lots and lots of experience.
--Wash the area you'll be working on with water. Just pull the drums off and spray everything with water. the reason I say water is that first, it's inexpensive compared to commercial cleaners. Second, it keeps the dust down, especially if you don't go blasting water like you're trying to strip paint, better than commercial products.

--You can blow everything dry with air after you've hosed the brake assembly off. And yes, you can use a commercial brake cleaner at this point if you really need to. Or you can dry well enough with rags, especially if it's warm out.

--Never, ever use heat or any kind of penetrating oil, or lube around your brakes. The only exception is white grease or never-seize on the contact pads part of the backing plates. Some people prefer white grease, some people prefer never-seize; I've used both with about equal results. Some brake kits come with single-use packets of white grease. Remember: like Brillcreame, "a little dab'll do you."

--Replace in sets, only. Did I mention replace in sets only? I mean it. If you replace one brake cylinder, replace the other one on the other side. Ditto for the drums, brake lines, and other stuff related to the brakes. It's usually only majorly inconvenient not to be able to start the truck, or to go as fast as the laws of physics will allow, but it's nearly always bad to not be able to <fontcolor=red>stop</fontcolor> when you really need to.

--Speaking of not being able to stop, no matter how cool someone thinks it looks, or how cheap you can get copper lines, they do NOT belong on your truck, as one guy who brought his 54 Ford F-100 to me found out the hard way. Even the newest Dot 5 Brake Fluid, or whatever's out there can't be trusted not to corrode through copper. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the front end damage wasn't too bad.

--Don't assume your drums aren't out-of-round, or not heat-checked, or undersized. Bad brakes are nothing to screw around with. Also, don't forget to check the backing plates. It's possible to smooth out the pads that the shoes make contact with, but only to a certain point. A 90-degree die grinder with a 3-inch, 180-grit roll-loc disc on it works fine. If the pads are too grooved out, either replace the backing plate, or have somebody weld it up and grind the pad back to original height. Not the first choice, but it'll work well enough for many miles.

Holler if you run into any problems.