I. Hate. Brakes.

Yea - I'm planning a D30. But it's way down the list after fuel injection, paint and springs.

Cost aside - I have about a day (tomorrow) to work on the Jeep. Once tomorrow is gone it'll probably be October until I can back to it as I have an extremely busy September with work.

I want to keep driving it. I want to take it to the beach on warm September days, and run the heater on the way home. I want to take it apple picking with the family on a warm day in October and load the back up with 80 lbs of freshly picked apples. It was off the road for 2 years...and it's too dang fun driving it again.

All to say...I'm just not taking on either a disc swap or axle swap right now - that's at two weeks down for me and more likely a month all told with chasing parts and all.

Especially not for the want of some new brake shoes (past experiences with scope creep aside...R) )R)

Drums...were new with the kits, the other shoes still had half-life on them. Maybe 2K of driving miles. Maybe.

 

X2
Also, make sure your adjusters are turning freely. In the pic on the right, there is slack in the self adjuster cable. The self adjuster lever should push down on the star wheel, making it rotate...

 

Good eye. I didn't get the cable on the bracket correctly - it slipped behind.

 

:iagree:

This is a lot more critical with 9" drums with the cam adjusters, but I've also run into it with other drum brake setups. I always like to install the shoes and all the hardware, and slip the drum over the shoes for a test-fit. Then I take a brake adjuster spoon and crank the star adjuster out until the brakes are pretty well locked up, and then back them off until I can *just* get the drum off. That will get you close, and you should have a good pedal height. Bleeed as needed and then do the ritual back up & slam on the brakes thing until the adjusters get things snugged up.

Believe it or not, I've seen drum setups where the drums were worn, the shoes were worn, the hardware was worn, and there was enough slop in there to allow the pistons in the wheel cylinders to pop out of the bore.

 

I'd focus on the wheel cylinder since you're losing fluid and pressure. How old is the cylinder? Like Jim mentioned check the piston and cup. Might want to hone the cylinder. I'm not familiar with the dual pin setup but I wonder if that's affecting the wheel cylinder from returning to the normal position. If so that might account for the squealing sound if the shoes are slightly dragging.

 

As stated these were all-new 11" drum kits, purchased complete and assembled from 4WPH. I said 7 years but thinking about it this AM they have to be closer to 10 years old, but mileage-wise pretty low. I'm reasonably sure the wheel cylinder is just an innocent bystander here, with the cup getting pulled off by the shoe.

I'll inspect the cup etc - but personally have never had good luck honing or rebuilding wheel cylinders and for the cost would just replace them if bad.

They squealed only when applying pressure. The shoes I removed were a bit shiny - I think they just developed a glaze from the time when the brakes were locking up and I dragged them down the highway a ways while towing the Jeep to the dunes.

 

Don't discount the age thing Mike, 10 years isn't bad considering that the Jeep (axles) sat for a good portion of that time.

 

Well....found some nicks in the rubber boot on the wheel cylinder so bought new wheel cylinders at AZ (only place that had them in stock locally).

However I'm having about the worst allergy attack I've ever had today so had to give up on them. Starting to wonder if it's the brake dust that I'm allergic to...

Hoping the drugs kick in and with a bit of rest I can get back out there later this afternoon.

 

OK - they're buttoned up again with 1 less hold down per side, new wheel cylinders, and I'm much more confident in them.

It's raining pretty hard at the moment so I can't road test, but in a few back and forths in the garage I think we got them bled better than they've ever been. The pedal is *right* there.

 

8)