Right, In the process of changing the radius arm, I've had to dissassemble the brake drum, now I have a problem. When I went to put the drum back together, the drum wont go on. The shoes are as close together (top end just touching the piston, bottom end touching the thing at the bottom) as possible but the drum just doesnt fit over the shoes. Anyone had this problem? Anyone know how to solve it? Also, the haynes manual says don't press the brake with the drum removed, but I thought I would give it ago to see if i had assembled the brakes properly, and they worked but when the pedal got all the way down, brake fluid started spraying out of the brake cylinder, now is this happening because its broken, or is it happening simply because the pistons are coming out so far because the shoes aren't stopping on the drum (which isnt on) and there is a gap for the fluid to get out?

Anyone with ideas????

Thanks.

Yeah, the message saying DON'T press the brakes with the drum removed was worth paying attention to. The shoes are designed to expand to fit the drum but NOT contract.

So the first thing you're gonna need to do is take the shoes off again, take the lid off the brake fluid reservoir, push the pistons back in (even just a bit should do) and put it back together.

And this time DON'T 'test' them before you've got it all back together!!!

I'm saying this from previous experience with other cars as I've not done the rear brakes on the Punto as yet so the above is based on the car I have done before.

lol first rule of mechanis if it says dont DONT lol, hope you can sort it mate i allways wondered what happend when you did that just never had guts to try

if the brake fluid has gone on the friction bit of the shoes they will need replacing, also if fluid has got out air might have got in so you best bleed them

Thanks for the replies. I fixed it all this morning and it seems to be working fine, I'm gonna take it straight down to a garage and get them to just check it all before I go anywhere in it, pretty sure it's ok but don't really want to take any chances. Like I did when I pressed the pedal with the drum off, next time if it says don't, then I wont!

Thanks again