CarbonBrush

OK all sorted now - I had to leave it for a few days due to other commitments. Stupid error. One cylinder was stuck in position. I blame working in poor light at night or should change optician.😅 It was the drag only on part of the rotation after full tightening that threw me. Anyway, fitted a new cylinder to go with the drums and shoes and everything is fine A couple of thing that may help others working on similar drum brakes. After fitting the new cylinder I held the pistons fully retracted by looping a long thin cable tie around the cylinder. This gave me a bit more (valuable) space for handling the bits associated with the shoes. Once everything was in place, I just cut the tie and pulled it out. One of the shoe retaining T bars & cup washer was in poor condition. There was risk of the bar dropping through the cup washer. I didn't have a replacement to hand and wanted to get on with the job. Used an M5 x 50 csk screw in the cup washer to hold the spring. Nyloc nut and large washer behind the drum. Just tighten the assembly until the spring has the same compression as the original fixing.

I am following this old thread with great interest for my MK1 Fabia. About 160000 miles. At the last MOT I had an advisory that the handbrake travel was excessive - probably needs new shoes/drums. Now the MOT is again imminent I decided to buy new drums and shoes! I have over the years replaced shoes and cylinders on quite a few cars so feel I have a good understanding of the principles. Though this is the first time on this car. N/S went on a dream. Well you have to have a bit of fight with the shoes and springs if you don't remove the hub. But I figured a bit of struggling was better than disturbing a good wheel bearing assembly. O/S is a completely different story. The drum turns freely until you tighten the drum screw the last 1/6 turn. Similarly if I fit the wheel it drags. A road test gave me a hot hub after a mile or two. The shoes are well backed off - the drum slides on/off easily by hand. The slave cylinder is fine. I have even been around removing the expanded rust from the backplate in case this is rubbing against the new drum. But that is not the case. If I offer up either of the old drums, there is no problem. If I take the o/s drum and put it on the n/s it fits fine. Obviously the shoe build is handed so I can't swap these. I am confident that the shoe(s) are rubbing against the drum, but only when the drum is completely seated. To me there are two possibilities. First is that the shoes are not quite the right size. Do I take a sander to the shoes? In the fresh air of course. Second is that the backplate has been distorted/bent a little causing the shoes to rub. Any thoughts from the members are most welcome. The car is still on axle stands!