turbo500
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- Mar 20, 2013
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As general advice, NAPA autoparts and some other stores in the U.S. rent specialty tools for ridiculously cheap/and/or for free. Definitely look into them as an option!
Hi, I actually ended up going to Autozone and renting a finger type bearing puller for free, but of course it was too big for the job Ended up using wrenches + rubber mallet combo to get behind the bearings and ease them off.
When you say you replaced the piston, do you mean the brake cylinder (the thing at the top with rubber at each end that presses against the two brake pads)? It's normal for the new brakes to rub, and near impossible to settle exactly in place by tapping them about. The best method that I know of is to get up to 40mph and slam on the brakes, then rev it up in reverse to a high rpm (15mph?) and lock up the brakes! Repeat 2-3 times and see if the brakes are in a better place.
I replaced the brake cylinder, but I've also replaced the main brake pump. I will try out the brake adjustment once I've finished all the brake job. I'm dealing with the wrong copper lines (long nipple instead of the correct short nipple).
Also, having replaced all the lines, cylinders and main pump, whats the best way of getting air out of the system without damaging the parts. Do I need to open all the bleed nipples on the cylinders initially when filling the system with brake fluid?
There are quite few threads on here which deal with the various aspects of that job; you will find them by searching "hub bearings" or similar in the box at the head of the Forum page.
For a starter though, which of the sets of four bolts are you thinking of first? You know how to get the drum off although separating that is not strictly essential at the rear and worth keeping on at this stage. The first thing is to remove the splined, driveshaft coupling inboard of the hub. That is the four 13mm head bolts (setscrews) which screw into the aluminium coupling. These can be quite tight and often have worn heads. Easiest removed with a really good ring-spanner. Keep the car on the ground and roll it along to improve access to all four. When removed, clean flaky bits off the driveshaft and push the cast-iron coupling towards the gearbox a tad. You should be able to wiggle the shaft away, retrieve a small spring (which may be broken) that sits in the end of it, and you will see a very large nut............
To be continued I am sure......
To be continued indeed
I will try to avoid messing with that for a little longer. But thanks for the explanation.
I've just finished a complete overhaul of my brakes and had similar problems to you with rubbing brakes. As Pazzo 500 said, if the rubbing is slight, I wouldn't worry about it. On my car the rear drums were very difficult to turn. To solve the problem I gently levered the shoes back where the adjusters are, using the flange on the back plate as a fulcrum point. Don't over do the levering as you don't want to damage the flange. Some people use a block of wood (to protect the linings) and hammer the shoes back.
I also discovered that my handbrake cable adjustment was wrong for the new shoes and this meant that with the handbrake released the brakes were still on enough to prevent the drums turning.
As Pazzo 500 said, when you've finished working on the brakes, you'll probably find that you've got too much pedal travel. Do what Passo said driving forward and in reverse at 10 to 15mph and repeatedly stamp on the pedal. The pedal travel will reduce as the brakes self adjust. I haven't done any work on rear bearings yet so can't give any advice on the work involved.
I used a rubber mallet to move the pads around, especially the fronts which when initially mounted were too high up and rubbed against the new drums. The rears are not completely stuck, but there is some contact between pads and new drums.
Will do as suggested. I also noticed that on the rear pads, the ones closest to the front of the car tend to jump out of their seat when I manually pulled the hand brake cable, this was with the drum off, so I guess with the drum off there wouldn't be space for them to move as much.
Thanks everyone for all the help