need help with brakes

[Sniper82]

I was trying to bleed the brakes but had the drum off inspecting things and my GF pushes the pedal before I had everything ready and fluid flies everywhere and spreads the brake shoes. Now I can't for the life of me get the drum back on because the shoes are spread apart and can't get them to close back. I have changed spark plugs, changed brake pads/rotors, fuel pumps, ect. I am a bit new with drum brakes.

 

[exdeath]

Drum brakes have an auto adjustment ratcheting like device that spreads and locks the position of the shoes every so much bit of travel to take up the slack of the missing pad material as they wear. You'll need to disengage that and manually reset it to allow the shoes to be pressed backwards. You may need to open the bleeder valve and allow fluid to escape as well so you can push them back against the fluid pressure. Been a while since I've done anything on drum brakes so my info may be off a little. If you get lost with all the clutter of parts, you can always take off the other wheel to see where they go.

After that you will definately need to completely bleed the brake system, at least that one wheel. No doubt she lifted the brake pedal after that and sucked air back into the system if it opened up the system enough to spray fluid or if the bleeder was open. Don't forget to top off the fluid level in the master cylinder as well, and check and recheck it constantly. If enough fluid was lost that the master cylinder got too low, you WILL have to bleed the entire system at all 4 wheels and if it gets low again while doing that you'll have to keep starting over. Make it clear to the person helping not to let the pedal up a single mm unless the bleed valve is closed and you tell them to.

 

[Sniper82]

thx for the info but do you happen to know of a pic online or something that will give me a idea on how to disengage them? Do I pull,push,ect something?

 

[cardiac]

Originally posted by: Sniper82
thx for the info but do you happen to know of a pic online or something that will give me a idea on how to disengage them? Do I pull,push,ect something?

What kind of car is it? You may have pushed one of the pistons out of the wheel cylinder. The bleeder valve is located on the back of wheel cylinder. You may also have knocked the adjuster out of it's place and this would keep you from re-setting the shoes...

Here's a rather crude pic with my notations on it: Drum brake schematic

Again, what kind of car is it?

Bob

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: cardiac

Originally posted by: Sniper82
thx for the info but do you happen to know of a pic online or something that will give me a idea on how to disengage them? Do I pull,push,ect something?

What kind of car is it? You may have pushed one of the pistons out of the wheel cylinder. The bleeder valve is located on the back of wheel cylinder. You may also have knocked the adjuster out of it's place and this would keep you from re-setting the shoes...

Here's a rather crude pic with my notations on it: Drum brake schematic

Again, what kind of car is it?

Bob

There should be some rubber dust covers on each side of that cylinder. The piston will have a rubber o-ring on it that you should not be able to see when you pull off/pry up that dust cover.

 

[Sniper82]

This is on a 96 Geo Prizm and that layout looks identical to it. Thx for that pic and the suggestion the adjuster did come loose and locked on part of the shoe. I gently knocked it back into place the the shoes instantly popped into place. Thx

 

[cardiac]

Cool, glad the pic helped. Make sure that you do bleed them properly before you drive it.

Bob