Hello,

I need to take out my brake shoes and give the whole thing a proper clean, there's probably 40000 miles worth of rust and gunk in there...

I've followed this: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/186946-cleaning-fabia-rear-drum-brakes/ but that doesn't cover removing the shoes. I got the Haynes manual, and it says to ease the break shoes out, which will loosen the springs so it's possible to unhook them. But it also says for some models you have to remove the hub to be able to do that, and it looks like I have to because the hub is blocking the shoes being moved down so they can pop out easily. Haynes says to use a cold chisel on the cap, but I have been all afternoon, whacking the chisel basically as hard as I can with a mallet, but it seems to be glued on with some green stuff... This needs to come out sooner or later anyway when the shoes need to be replaced... Any advice please? Pic attached.

Thanks,

ldarby

Wedge a screwdriver in there and use it as a lever to split the cap out of the hub

Thanks, well, there wasn't any room for a screwdriver, and I realised why the mallet + cold chisel wasn't getting anywhere. The rubber mallet absorbs too much energy and the chisel wasn't sharp enough, so I used a sharp wood working chisel and a metal hammer, and that opened up enough of a gap to get a screwdriver in and twist it, and that finally worked, thanks! But it put a few small dents in it, I don't think that's going to affect the seal, although I might seal it back up with silicone gel, which I do on my bicycle. I couldn't see where to get replacement caps anyway.

So now I've finally got the hub off (with a 30mm socket and had to use the long torque wrench, and socket extender, otherwise the wrench hits the side panel), and eventually got the shoes out. I thought they could move down and come out, but the shoes hit the outer casing of the brakes (not sure what's that called?), stopping it, but they did pop upwards, and now I'm not sure if that could have been possible without having to remove the hub... I'll try it on the other wheel when I get round to that. They're still connected via the top 2 springs, and I'll try to leave them like while cleaning, that otherwise it'll be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle putting it back together.

Next question (or should this be a new topic?), Haynes "recommends" replacing the self locking nut on the hub every time, I think because it's self-locking, but why not just use some thread-lock instead?

What the hell does the wood chisel look like!!!!!

Yeah you should really replace it but ive re-used them countless times and they are fine

What the hell does the wood chisel look like!!!!!

Sorry, wasn't a wood chisel, actually was the metal bit off one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(tool) which is a similar cutting edge to, well, a wood chisel...

And they require the correct torque, real easy to over tighten them which will fudge the bearing in no time.

There was so much rust I had to take them apart completely. I used a bent coat hanger for one of the springs, filed down to just be thin enough, and the other I used a PCI slot cover from my PC, which is the ideal shape to wedge into the spring and lift it. Trying to use a coat hanger didn't work on that one because all the corrosion was causing too much friction... Then I used the cold chisel to chisel away most of the rust! I try to drive smoothly and don't brake hard, so I was really thinking they would rust through before they wore out!

I've painted everything and the hub with hammerite now, being really careful to avoid getting it where it doesn't belong, it converts rust into a goopy black mess, which hardens after 3 hours, that would stuff up anything that's meant to move... Currently waiting for that to set, then will start putting it all back together.