Hi, i am new here, and wondered if there's anyone out there who could help me with my brakes.

First of all, I own a '95 FIAT UNO FIRE 1100

My rear brakes won't release at all. We checked the rear pistons and when pressed in the pads still don't release at all. We put back the drums, and when i use the handbrake or step on the brakes, the rear wheels are stuck again. When releasing the handbrake lever at the drum, the pads are still don't move

Can anyone give me some advise on this, i will appreciate it much.

Late Uno Rear Brakes.

Hi and welcome

The friction lining for drum brakes are ‘shoes’, pads are for discs

Hmm late Uno drums aaaaah…

This happened to me after reading about and doing the reverse fast and yank up handbrake trick to make the auto adjusters work. They over adjusted locking the rear wheels hence not recommended!!

When I fixed the problem I noticed that my Late Uno has different self adjusters to all the early ones.. I think the change is from 1993 onwards. The older type has big round adjusters on the shoes like this



Where as the newer type have a ratchet self adjuster which needs to be relieced after removing the drum.

Shoes look like this and you won’t find a reference in Haynes



I can’t remember exactly how I did it, but seem to recall there is something between the shoes holding them apart. I lifted the ratchet with a screwdriver to remove the tension.

While your in there you may as well check that the mils steal pivots (things that attach to hand brake cable and go through the drum) are free to pivot. These are renound for rusting and seizing which can also result in poor handbrake efficiency (so you pull the leaver hard enough to stretch the cable as you fail the MOT) or freezing in place (locking drums). Same as Centos.. https://www.fiatforum.com/cinq-sei-technical/1819-cinq-sei-handbrake-issues.html

I’d say they can be cleaned up and copper greased as I have done so on both of Emma’s centos and the handbrake locks up on 3 clicks.. I got a set of the pivots for my Uno a few years ago and still have not got round to fitting themso the handbrake won’t lock on.

Let us know how you get on!!

Regards,
Louie.

Hi

My rear brakes ('95 UNO FIRE 1100) are the old ones (picture below).

We have checked the "pistons"
Checked the handbrake

We checked and released everything. It is definitely the shoes that are stuck.

HOW? WHY?





Any help will be appreciated!!!

How long have you had the Uno? How long has the Uno had the problem?

I’d have thought if the shoes were tight on the drum you would really struggle to get the drum off the hub. Have you tried turning the hub without the drum in place?

I bought it about six months ago.

The previous owner recently put on new drums and shoes. The brakes were really bad, so i overhauled the master cylinder, and realised that the master cylinder was not letting any brake fluid through to the rear pipes (must have been like that for quite some time. There was absolutely no brake fluid in the rear pipes).

After I overhauled the master cylinder the brakes were very good , and there is brake fluid to the rear brakes now.

The problem started after the overhaul.

When I pull up the handbrake and release it or press in the foot brake and release it with the drum off, the handbrake releases, and the small "piston" releases too, but the brake shoes are stuck. (when I drive it gets so hot that you can't even touch the wheel)

It is very difficult too get the drum off, but when you turn the drum backwards it releases a little bit, enough to enable you to get the drum off.

Could it maybe have something to do with the "self adjusters", is something too tight, or what do you think?

All that heat is no good for the wheel bearing.

I didn’t realise you were In South Africa.. Perhaps your Unos came with the older brake setup. I think the UK and maybe other Unos were test ground for new parts for the Punto.

If you have the ratchet type adjuster, it’s like a sprung rachety bar holding the shoes apart. If I recall its below the slave cylinder (that houses the pistons) and above the wheel hub.

If you find you have the ratchet auto adjusters, you have the wrong shoes in as the big round thing is also an auto adjuster.

I have looked on the parts catalogue but Can’t find what I’m trying to describe.
http://eper.fiatforum.com/eper/navi...INT_MODE=0&EPER_CAT=SP&GUI_LANG=3&WINDOW_ID=1

maybe it’s a part of the shoes

The round auto adjusters can be de adjusted. You turn the round bit but I can’t remember which way. Can’t even remember if they have to be off the car to go back. sorry its becoming a bit of a blurr .

Good news, my brake problems are sorted out. I Don't really know what was the problem.

Now, I have another problem!!!

My 1100 UNO FIRE, is very very heavy on gas. I get 300 km's on a tank of gas. Anybody got any ideas? Oh yeh, and it misses a little. Checked the timing and that is fine.

Does anybody know where the idle jet is on a uno's carb?

Are you sure the brakes still aren't sticking? If they were it would cause the mpg to drop as you'd need to use more accelerator to attain the same speed.

Matt

The rear brakes are definitely not stuck any more, had it fixed, and I am checking it regularly.

Replaced the vacuum advance diaphragm. Do you think it will make a huge difference?

I had the sticking problem on my UNO recently and yesterday found the self adjusting spring on the shoes is the problem.

My "new" set of shoes were a rebuild (as are most bought in SA) but someone had not put the spacer's on between the springs and the washers.

Without these spacers the shoes move around on the springs quite easily so they never really stay adjusted properly.

Thought I would add it in case anybody else ever has this problem, also something to look out for when buying brake shoes.

Good advice there Sean, and one time I've actually thrown out brand new shoes because the self-adjusters just didn't work properly - when the second set of new shoes did. I've also had problems with the adjusters on old brake shoes.

It seems to be important not to grease or lubricate the springs/washers in any way.

This is, of course, for the old style of brake shoe which, in line with what Louie said before, is fitted to most Uno models except very late ('94) UK models.

-Alex

I think it's mid to late 1993 that the change happened. Mine was first registered October 1993 and these are the shoes I found https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=39818 .

Fiat didn't seem to keep it as Emma's Cinquecento and Seicento have shoes with the earlier Uno style adjusters.

Lol louie, don't scare me with the springs man, daar gaat groot kak wees, if I screw it up, .

Hyperspace said:

Lol louie, don't scare me with the springs man, daar gaat groot kak wees, if I screw it up, .

Click to expand...

LOL leke hyper!!
Anyway, spoke to a guy from a brake and clutch centre a while back, and he said the problem with the brakes is when the shoes kick out against the drums and then releases again, they don't retract(sorry for the poor english) correctly. Apparantly only the piston side retracts, and the bottom side is still kicked out. Don't know if that really happens, it sounded dodgy too me at first. Luckily my Uno'tjie didn't start with that problems....(yet)