2005 Ford Taurus Rear Brake Job for Drum Brakes

[Snagglefoot]

Here is some of the fun I wanted to share doing the rear brakes on a 2005 Ford Taurus. I wanted to check the 8 year old rear brakes but could not get the brake drums removed. I live in the Rocky Mountain trench north of Idaho, in Eastern British Columbia. Lots of salt on the road.

As many You Tube videos have shown, the drums had a rust edge that caught the edge of the the brake shoes. The edge required a significant pounding with a BFH.

The shoes were worn about a third after 8 years and 50,000 miles. I attempted to loosen the star wheel and even used a home made tool to lift the lever off the star wheel but could not reach the star wheel properly. I see why many folks give up on the star wheel and use the hammer. I tried it again after getting the drums off and now know where to reach.

Here are a few shots. Everything is rusted and you can make out the rust edge that was jamming the shoes.

My technique was to pound the back edge of the drum outward until the drum would not turn, then pound the drum back in and rotate it 180 degrees.
Repeat endlessly. They finally came off.

Here are a few shots. I’ll submit more later, after the new drums arrive from Canadian Tire.

 

[supton]

I do not miss drums. Do not miss Toyota’s drum brake inside rotor either, as they made for lousy parking brakes, while still having this same issue.

No fun living in a salt state.

 

[trd1zz]

Too bad you live in an area that salts. Without rust those shoes could have gone another 100k. Would have been a simple clean + adjust + lube job.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Bendix doesn't seem to make the pre-assembled shoes anymore

I hope you got coated drums

The OE Motorcraft drums are still available for your 2005 Taurus

 

[eljefino]

Those old shoes look fine. If it were my car I'd grind the lip off the old drums, adjust the shoes, and slap it all back together, maybe with a little antisieze. Then pull the drums every other year and check the lip-- easier promised than delivered, LOL.

I don't honestly mind drum brakes, especially Toyota's implementation with the M8 bolt holes so you can crank them right off without the hammer.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Bendix doesn't seem to make the pre-assembled shoes anymore

I hope you got coated drums

The OE Motorcraft drums are still available for your 2005 Taurus

I couldn’t get the coated drums as the delivery was too long. Lordco up here had them. Too bad about the pre assembled shoes with the parking break arm. It’s a significant amount of work to transfer the arm to the new shoe.

The shoes I got were Raybestos Element 3.

The absolute worst part of things was unhooking and hooking up the parking brake cable. Even the mechanic on 1A Auto had a hard time.

 

[SeaJay]

Too bad you live in an area that salts. Without rust those shoes could have gone another 100k. Would have been a simple clean + adjust + lube job.

A cost of doing business and living up north. Brakes aren't the only part of the undercarriage that gets destroyed by the rust. Not only the cost of replacement parts, but the labor and effort to remove the rusty parts.

 

[trd1zz]

A cost of doing business and living up north. Brakes aren't the only part of the undercarriage that gets destroyed by the rust. Not only the cost of replacement parts, but the labor and effort to remove the rusty parts.

For sure. That's why when I'm looking to buy a used vehicle on the east coast anything north of Virginia is automatically disqualified.

 

[KGMtech]

98% of passenger cars, and light trucks would be just fine with drum rear brakes, the OEM's marketing department were responsible for making these 'necessary' Road salt does a far worse job on rear disks than otherwise like cars equipped with drums. YMMV.

Now with regen braking for EV, the OEM's are moving to rear drums...and small ones at that.

 

[Snagglefoot]

For sure. That's why when I'm looking to buy a used vehicle on the east coast anything north of Virginia is automatically disqualified.

Maybe we can use the Mason Dixon Line.

 

[eljefino]

98% of passenger cars, and light trucks would be just fine with drum rear brakes, the OEM's marketing department were responsible for making these 'necessary' Road salt does a far worse job on rear disks than otherwise like cars equipped with drums. YMMV.

At least with electronic brake force distribution there's programming to give the rear disks enough pressure now and again to keep the rust scraped off. It was worse in the 90s with Saturns and W-body Oldsmobiles and their horrible rear disc implementations.

 

[Timmastertech]

There was a guy on ebay that sold tools for those to lift the adjuster lever. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow of them if I can find them in my toolbox. Used to use them almost every day, rarely anymore. The other method to back off the brake adjuster is to knock out two wheel studs and work through the holes in the hub then reinstall the studs once the drum is removed. I am not a fan of that method but it works.