quick overview on replacing rear drum brakes.

[Your_Dead]

well as the title says. a female friend of mine(lets be honest the girl that im chasing after ) needs her rear drum brakes replaced on her car and me being the "nice" guy that i am offered to do it for her. only thing is... i dont know how to change drum brakes..... so if someone could link me to a quick write up or actully DO a quick write up for me it would be much appericiated

 

[wret]

Not to be sarcastic but I believe Haynes has a very nice writeup. Get it, read it, and ask about any part you don't understand.

 

[TFFC]

Drum brakes are not that hard. A few things I would recamend is that you buy oem pads and not those autozone brand. I have noticed that the oem pads do not make sounds over the life of them like the autozone one's do, as soon as you put them on. Make sure you get the drums cut, this will take roughly an hour of downtime at the machine shop. Buy all the parts before you go disassembling the brakes and only do one side at a time, just incase you mess up on one side, you can reference yourself with the other side. When you go to buy parts, get the hardware kit. When was the last time she had here brakes done??? You may also need wheel cylinders depending on the condition. Last but not least, bleed the brakes, this may not be needed but I would do it just to be safe, and have some fresh fluid in there. Overall this job will take anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on your mechinal ablilty and the downtime for cutting the drums.

 

[Your_Dead]

i was gonna buy a hanes manual but i figured why the hell am i gonna pay 20ish bucks for a book on a car that i will never use again. she has a crappy 1994 toyota camary and chances are shes gonna get rid of it pretty quick so it would be 20 bucks down the drain. thanks though. come to think about it i may have a hanes manual from an older car that has rear drum brakes. maybe i'll look

 

[napkinthief]

duh, go read it in the shop, take notes, pretend ur looking for oil type and filter works great

 

[CrazyUglyCoyote]

There is a special tool you MUST have to do all drum brakes. Yeah you can do it without it, but makes life a real B-otch. It looks like a pair of pliars with a special designed "Mouth" and on the handle has this round doo- hicky device you use to take off the springs. In my opinion take it to Midas and have them do it. There is alot that can go wrong, and if somthing brakes there goes al your street cred. And there you will be with no girl.