One of my rear brakes is binding even with the handbrake cable disconnected at the lever end. I can rotate the rear wheel only with a fair amount of force and the drum is considerably warmer than the other side after driving.

Any suggestions on how to remove the drum - I presume the wheel cylinder is seized. There is a slotted inspection hole in the backplate but I can only seem to jam the brakes on harder rather than release them.

Thanks

lamlash said:

Any suggestions on how to remove the drum

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You'll already have removed two pins that are used to position the roadwheels. The holes in the drum through which those pins pass are threaded. If you insert a couple of suitably-sized bolts into those threads, you can use them as extractor bolts to pull off the drum. Just make sure you pull it off evenly.

Thanks - I'll give that a try tomorrow - hopefully it will come off without damaging anything inside.

Not sure if teh Panda drum brakes are the same as the drums on the Seicento, but in the past, the issue with binding brakes is generally to do with the manual metal lever that goes into the back of the drum and is connected to the handbrake cable.

This lever is is two parts and is like a pair of scissors that have seized up.

If it is the same, before you faff about, you can get under the car and 'push' the lever towards the front of the car (the lever has the cable connection so you cannot miss it).

Right, I had time for a quick look this evening before it went dark and started snowing again!

I tried using a couple of bolts in the holes that the wheel locating studs are screwed into to try to force the hub off- this wasn't successful since the locating studs screw into the hub itself rather than the drum so all you end up doing is putting the hub under pressure. In my case I ended up distorting one of the bolts that I'd fitted- through bad luck it didn't contact a flat part of the backplate but instead made contact with one of the backplate retaining cap screws, forcing my bolt to bend on the inside and become impossible to remove. I got the drum off in the end using the old fashioned method (a club hammer and block of wood) then drilled out what remained of my bolt from the hub.

I ran out of daylight so put it all back together and it seems to work OK for the moment. I don't need to use this at the moment so it can sit on the drive until the weather warms up a bit and I can have a proper look at it.

Update on this problem: I had some time today and have sorted the binding brake out. It was a seized wheel cylinder which I've replaced.

I bought a Haynes manual just in case there was anything useful in there in relation to the self adjuster mechanism (there isn't by the way) and there are a couple of differences between the Haynes illustrations and the Bosch rear brake shoe set up that my 2010 Eleganza has:

1. The spring retainers for the shoes were regular springs with disc shaped top retaining cups on my car rather than the rectangular sprung steel versions shown by Mr Haynes.
2. As mentioned previously the holes that the wheel alignment studs in the brake drum are fitted can't be used for pushing the drum off (on my car at least) because they just drive through a matching tapped hole in the hub assembly. This technique could be used if you could rotate the drum out of alignment a bit first so your pusher bolts drive against the plain part of the hub - but then you probably would be able to get the drum off without using them anyway.Just use a hammer and block of wood to protect the drum and it should eventually free itself.

The job was straightforward but quite time consuming. A couple of tips for anyone else who has to replace a rear wheel cylinder on their Panda:

1. You need a fairly thin open ended 10mm spanner to undo one of the two cylinder retaining bolts because there isn't much clearance between the bolt head and the rear of the hub assembly. You have to gradually pull the wheel cylinder forwards whilst undoing this bolt in order to get enough clearance to remove it.
2. To bleed the brakes you need a pressure bleeding kit (if the car has ABS). Whilst bleeding the rear brake which has a new wheel cylinder it is useful to push the pistons of the slave cylinder in and out a few times to release any air trapped inside it.

lamlash said:

2. As mentioned previously the holes that the wheel alignment studs in the brake drum are fitted can't be used for pushing the drum off (on my car at least) because they just drive through a matching tapped hole in the hub assembly.

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You need to use bigger bolts!

jrkitching said:

You need to use bigger bolts!

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I had a look at the other drum and you are correct - there are tapped holes in the drum which are bigger than the tapped holes in the hub so you can fit M10 bolts and it very easily drive the drum off. The one I had the problem with for some reason has no tappings in the drum - presumably a manufacturing defect.

AB100 said:

Not sure if teh Panda drum brakes are the same as the drums on the Seicento, but in the past, the issue with binding brakes is generally to do with the manual metal lever that goes into the back of the drum and is connected to the handbrake cable.

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Good advice but the Panda is different - the cable attaches directly to the shoe on the panda Been there many times with cinque/sei/Uno rear drums