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are brakes just brakes?


dombanks

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her indoors has this rickety p reg pug 106 which i sometimes fear for my life in. she refuses to pay more than 500 for a car much to my constant annoyance. anyway the rear brakes at the last MOT were advised as something daft like "may need replacing or adjusting" and as a typical woman who doesnt even know how to fill up the washer she has done nothing about them!

 

so ive never really done anything with drum brakes and i dont have a pug book so my question is:

 

in principal is the operation of drum brakes pretty much the same for all cars?

 

i have a couple of ford books that say about drums so i was thinking i could refere to them and wing it... 1

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Can't really help except to say not to expect too much. My equivalent to yours indoors had a 106 of the same sort of vintage. Shocking brakes even when garage serviced and at their best. Every time I drove it I thought there must be something wrong with them.

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Yes, drum brakes are pretty much all the same in principle, two fixed pivoting shoes pushed apart by a hydraulic cylinder against the inside of a drum.  Only difference tends to be whether they are self-adjusting or not.  Ford ones have several types of self-adjusters with varying success levels.  The older type had a star wheel in the middle of an expanding screw between the bottom of the two shoes - you'd remove the rubber dust cap from behind the plate, take a wide flat blade screwdriver or similar and flick the star wheel upwards while turning the tyre until the drums just started to drag ever so slightly.  The alternative was to find an empty car park, reverse at speed and stomp on the brakes, drive forward and stop, repeat several times until parking brake worked well again.

 

But yes, simple technology - the worst things are the sprung pin shoe retainers, dumbest brake design ever.  Mole grips strongly advised for this.  If you're going to do it yourself, always get new ones when you get new shoes, along with plenty of brake cleaner.

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There are two types of actution. One uses one cylinder to expand the shoes and the other uses two. The type that uses two pushes opposite ends of the shoes but the single cylinder type push both shoes.

IF I was you I'd take the wheel and drum off take few photos put them on a tech talk page and we can give you twenty different opinions.

Probably find the shoes are contaminated with oil or brake fluid.

OK, that only took about 10 minutes type. I'm in computer store trying a galaxy tab. Now I'll try a ipad.

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Dont be daft Norm , nobody uses tech talk pages for technical questions :t-up:

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My dad always told me to take one side apart whilst keeping the other intact so you always have one for referance, if you do that I think you will be ok, as stated drum brakes pretty low tech.

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My dad always told me to take one side apart whilst keeping the other intact so you always have one for referance, if you do that I think you will be ok, as stated drum brakes pretty low tech.

 

Your dad is very wise and correct greenandmean!

 

 

 

dombanks

 

Like norm says best to post pics, as peugeot/citroen did both three and four wheel stud cars on 106/saxo and the shoes on each were different!

Being citroen trained i was taught to let h/brake off at cable and then adjust shoes till you feel the shoes starting to bind very slightly just enough so the drum doesnt spin forever when you do it by hand! You just want a nice bind, then take the slack up on the cable and you should get yourself a nice h/brake and brake application!

 

Just be careful not to over adjust as if you do the suspension movement can in affect pull the h/brake cables on and off ever so slightly when being driven and can cause brakes to bind on!

 

its common sense more than anything make sure they spin nice by hand but you can hear the shoes rubbing slightly if you know what i mean.

 

Scott

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The main thing to remember is which way the shoes go. They are not usually the same, as one end has more lining than the other, if you see what I mean.

 

 

 

Bernie, Have you noticed that. The Newbies section is like a mini tech talk page.

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