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To remove brake drum, do I need to remove wheel bearing?


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Hi guys!

 

This is probably a stupid question, but anyways, do I need to remove the wheel bearing to remove the rear brake drum?

 

The car in question is Fabia Mk1 (Comfort Estate) 2003.

 

If so, do I need some special tool to remove the bearing?

 

My handbrake has more or less collapsed, and I need to remove the drum to inspect things in under, but it's stuck.

 

I managed to remove the dust cap using a cold chisel (erhm, actually a Kamasa flat screwdriver, but anyways), but now a bit shaky in touching the bearing.

 

Cheers!

 

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The brake shoes can be released by levering the adjuster upwards using a screwdriver inserted through a bolt hole. The adjuster is situated at the leading edge (top) of the leading shoe (i.e., the one at the front).

I discovered this from my Haynes Manual (Halfords or Amazon). I've only just done the job, and the drum had rusted to the hub. I used a mallet to thump the drum (don't shatter it though!) around its periphery and on the mounting face, alternating with a bit of heat application from a blowlamp (keep it moving!). Eventually the drum came off. When replacing, emery off the rust from the hub and drum (and the spigot hole in the wheel rim) and lightly apply some grease (Copperslip ideal) to the mounting faces. Don't remove the hub, it requires a special tool and renewing of some of the components - and the hub forms part of the bearing I believe.

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Thanks for quick responses guys, you are the best! :D

 

I finally managed to get the drum at least partly free, using a couple of dashes with the stubby side of an hand-axe.

 

Now, I took the final bending using earlier mentioned flat screwdriver, and it would soon show that I was going to rough on the inside.

 

Yeah, it was obvious that I had managed to damage the right side of the wheel cylinder. Seconds later the spring bounced of and it came of.

 

Damn it, I thought to myself. I have always been afraid of the day when I will have to perform a proper brake bleeding. This time will probably be it.

 

At first, I was really anxious (incl. lots of loud swearing), but after half an hour or so I managed to find some calm. I went outside and took everything out.

 

I wrapped some plastic foil over the little metal cap where the wheel cylinder had been connected, just for dirt from the parking lot not to get inside.

 

Right now I have ordered the following, all brand new:

 

2 pcs of 200mm drums.

2 pcs of wheel cylinders.

1 set of brake shoes (both sides)

1 set of brake shoe springs (both sides)

1 set of auto-brake adjusters, i.e. the small wedge and the hard piece of metal (both sides)

 

The car is jacked on one axle stand outside the parking lot, and will probably stand like that until the parts arrive, in a week or so.

 

Tomorrow I will probably go out and put the other rear wheel on an axle stand as well, since it's probably better for car suspension.

 

This will indeed be a major project to me, since I've never ever done brake jobs of any kind.

 

Not too scared though, tonight I've read tons of Briskoda threads on the subject, and also watched tons of Youtube vides.

 

It will feel really great when I have everything (except for the backing plate) in brand new condition.

 

Worst case scenario is that I surrender and give all the parts to a garage.

 

Nah, I won't let it come to that, seriously. Anyways, I'll give a shout-out when this is all finished business.

 

Cheers!

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I remember the first time I adjusted the drum brakes on my first mini when I was 18. The Haynes manual told me to back off the pads until the drums were rotating freely. So I did. Took it for a test run and hit the brakes at a T-junction, only to sail straight over...

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Two bits of advice, one involving another purchase.

There's a small plastic (PTFE?) part referred to as a 'glide piece', of which there are three under each shoe. They are to give a low-friction contact between the edge of each shoe and the backing plate, for smooth shoe movement. On our car two or three of these were badly worn out and chewed up, resulting in less easy motion than there should have been.  They are rather easy to replace when everything is dis-assembled, much more difficult when everything is in place.

The part number is 6N0 609 589 and there's 6 on each backing plate, roughly at the top, middle and bottom of each shoe. Shown here.  Not very expensive, and I think worth having some of at the start in case you do discover some are destroyed.

 

My other piece of advice regards re-assembly.  It is possible to extract and insert the two-shoe-pair as a complete assembly without removing the hub, but it's quite a wriggle to get it around things without bashing the pistons and seals of the wheel cylinder too much.  With dis-assembly and everything being replaced, this doesn't matter, but you don't want to inflict too much trauma on your new wheel cylinders, so I would consider building up the shoe-pairs on a bench/in a vice, then fitting these, then fitting the new wheel cylinders afterwards, with an assistant pulling the tops of the shoes apart as required.

 

Edit: Just remembered one more thing.  When you come to bleeding the wheel cylinders, note that they don't sit horizontal if the rear beam is hanging down under its own weight, so it'll be hard to get air out from the high end of each as the bleed nipple is in the middle. Ensure the cylinders are horizontal before bleeding.

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Two bits of advice, one involving another purchase.

There's a small plastic (PTFE?) part referred to as a 'glide piece', of which there are three under each shoe. They are to give a low-friction contact between the edge of each shoe and the backing plate, for smooth shoe movement. On our car two or three of these were badly worn out and chewed up, resulting in less easy motion than there should have been.  They are rather easy to replace when everything is dis-assembled, much more difficult when everything is in place.

The part number is 6N0 609 589 and there's 6 on each backing plate, roughly at the top, middle and bottom of each shoe. Shown here.  Not very expensive, and I think worth having some of at the start in case you do discover some are destroyed.

 

My other piece of advice regards re-assembly.  It is possible to extract and insert the two-shoe-pair as a complete assembly without removing the hub, but it's quite a wriggle to get it around things without bashing the pistons and seals of the wheel cylinder too much.  With dis-assembly and everything being replaced, this doesn't matter, but you don't want to inflict too much trauma on your new wheel cylinders, so I would consider building up the shoe-pairs on a bench/in a vice, then fitting these, then fitting the new wheel cylinders afterwards, with an assistant pulling the tops of the shoes apart as required.

 

Edit: Just remembered one more thing.  When you come to bleeding the wheel cylinders, note that they don't sit horizontal if the rear beam is hanging down under its own weight, so it'll be hard to get air out from the high end of each as the bleed nipple is in the middle. Ensure the cylinders are horizontal before bleeding.

 

Great advice. I didn't know about those plastic glide pieces on the backplates.

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Guys, big thanks for all your advice, they've been much helpful.

 

Now, it's time for an update.

 

Yesterday, all parts arrived, well, except for the kit containing "pressing plate" and "auto adjuster wedge", which I could not find in any Swedish store, but finally found brand new on eBay, in the UK actually.

 

Also, I've ordered 12 pcs of plastic glide pieces, which I could order (almost for free) from our local Skoda service center.

 

Anyways, too eager to get the project running I decided I would try to put it together, and perhaps change those steel pieces and put new sliding pieces later on.

 

So, yesterday night I sat at the kitchen table putting the mechanism together. Two of the springs was pretty tough, but I finally managed to hook them.

 

Today, me and my lady got outside and started the project. Everything was fine, and we were close to start bleeding the system.

 

Anyways, this was when I got this horrible(!) idea.

 

I said to my lady that I wanted to see if/how the new cylinder worked, and also the handbrake.

 

So, without having reinstalled the brand new drum, I added lots of brake fluid and started the engine and started pressing the pedal.

 

I thought to myself (really stupid of me, yeah) that the cylinder pistons had some sort of "end station" in each dirrection, i.e. so they can't pop out.

 

First, they pressed the whole assembly askew. Basically, the pressing plate pressed the right shoe so it jumped over the wedge and totally of the hook.

 

Second, I could see brake fluid slowly dripping down on the sides of the rubber coating over the pistons.

 

I'm a complete disaster, yeah.

 

Anyways, nothing bad comes without learning a thing or two.

 

Now I've taken everything in pieces again, and I'm back on the kitchen table, going to reassembly everything.

 

Cheers! :hi:

 

 

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