Resurrecting  an older post, but I've just changed one elderly rear cylinder and the securing bolt head  proved difficult. I enlisted the help of a neighbour who's a truck rescue tech. One swift application of an angle grinder and cylinder was off. From memory the holding bolt is M6 . I couldn't find any bolts short enough so I resorted to the shortest Allen headed bolt I had and locked it in place with a locknut( spanner size =10 mm). MOT man approved this.

I've found that fitting a bleed pressure kit at the start makes fluid loss minimal and brakes easier to bleed afterwords.

 

Looking back at older posts on this one. Could be same problem I had recently- one adjuster wedge not dropping properly and it's sticking until it gets a bit down. Simple to find- find the drum that comes off with no effort and move the wedge down. If the cable is not adjusted properly , then the one side that's tight will pull the shoes in and contact with drum will heat up drum. Possibly leading to loss of wheel bearing grease( =premature wheel bearing failure) or shoes on fire.

Edited 14 October, 20205 yr by VWD

10 minutes ago, VWD said:

Resurrecting  an older post, but I've just changed one elderly rear cylinder and the securing bolt head  proved difficult. I enlisted the help of a neighbour who's a truck rescue tech. One swift application of an angle grinder and cylinder was off. From memory the holding bolt is M6 . I couldn't find any bolts short enough so I resorted to the shortest Allen headed bolt I had and locked it in place with a locknut( spanner size =10 mm). MOT man approved this.

I've found that fitting a bleed pressure kit at the start makes fluid loss minimal and brakes easier to bleed afterwords.

 

Looking back at older posts on this one. Could be same problem I had recently- one adjuster wedge not dropping properly and it's sticking until it gets a bit down. Simple to find- find the drum that comes off with no effort and move the wedge down. If the cable is not adjusted properly , then the one side that's tight will pull the shoes in and contact with drum will heat up drum. Possibly leading to loss of wheel bearing grease( =premature wheel bearing failure) or shoes on fire.

Hi thanks for the reply i pushed one of the piston back maybe got stuck and its working fine its been ok for a few months now the weather is not good when its better im going to take the hub off just to look inside see if everything looks ok even tho there no problem with braking at all 

One thing I learned in the days when it was possible to overhaul pistons ( new seals etc) was that it was imperative that the pistons /cylinder bores etc were kept scrupulously clean as even a tiny grain of dirt can cause wear in the bore ,leading to fluid leak. And the job of the piston seal is to stop dirt finding it's way in or if the piston moves, air getting into system. I also ,as an added precaution,  seal the lid of the master with a pressure bleed unit, with the air valve closed. Another old fashioned alternative is to fit a bit of cling film over the lid of the master cylinder and screw the lid on.

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!
 

Take a sander to the shoes and see if problem diminishes or vanishes with minimal material removal.

Or just reuse the old drum.

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.