Last week the right rear wheel kept locking up on my 92 Cavalier when applying the brakes so I decided to take the tire and drum off to see what was going on. The first issue was that the drum would not come off. I spent about an hour beating on the drum and using a lot of penetrant before it came off. It was rusted on good. The last time I messed with the rear brakes on this car was almost 14 years ago when I put new pads and wheel cylinders in on both sides.
I see that I have a leaking wheel cylinder and the adjuster is frozen up. I get the adjuster freed up and decide that I was going to wait to do the wheel cylinder because you have to loosen the hub bearing assembly to remove the wheel cylinder since there is not enough room to get it off past the flange. I also decided to replace the pads and drums since they were about half way worn and the drum was in bad shape.
So today I decide to tackle the job. I start on the other side since I know the drum will be rusted on which it was. It takes me quite a while to get it off. I then remove all of the brake hardware so I can get to the hub bearing bolts. I get the brake line loose, wheel cylinder bolts loose, and the hub bearing bolts loose but then discovered that the wheel bearing is rusted to the backing plate so that I can't remove the wheel cylinder. The wheel cylinder is also rusted to the backing plate. It takes me about an hour to get those loose. Since it's been awhile since I've done drum brakes, I had to keep looking at the pictures I took before hand and I had some issues with installing the upper springs even though I have all of the correct tools. They just didn't want to cooperate.
I finally get that side done at about 2pm and I started at about 10am. I go to the other side where I had already taken the drum off from last week so that part went smooth but of coarse the hub bearing assembly and wheel cylinder was rusted to the backing plate. I finally got the other side done at about 4:30 pm and that included adjusting the parking brake.
I still had to bleed the brakes but I was tired so I packed it in and will finish that part tomorrow. With as much of a hassle this turned out to be, I should have just had our mechanic do it since he is pretty reasonable on prices. I put anti-seize on all of the contact surfaces this time just in case I ever have to take this stuff back apart.
I see that I have a leaking wheel cylinder and the adjuster is frozen up. I get the adjuster freed up and decide that I was going to wait to do the wheel cylinder because you have to loosen the hub bearing assembly to remove the wheel cylinder since there is not enough room to get it off past the flange. I also decided to replace the pads and drums since they were about half way worn and the drum was in bad shape.
So today I decide to tackle the job. I start on the other side since I know the drum will be rusted on which it was. It takes me quite a while to get it off. I then remove all of the brake hardware so I can get to the hub bearing bolts. I get the brake line loose, wheel cylinder bolts loose, and the hub bearing bolts loose but then discovered that the wheel bearing is rusted to the backing plate so that I can't remove the wheel cylinder. The wheel cylinder is also rusted to the backing plate. It takes me about an hour to get those loose. Since it's been awhile since I've done drum brakes, I had to keep looking at the pictures I took before hand and I had some issues with installing the upper springs even though I have all of the correct tools. They just didn't want to cooperate.
I finally get that side done at about 2pm and I started at about 10am. I go to the other side where I had already taken the drum off from last week so that part went smooth but of coarse the hub bearing assembly and wheel cylinder was rusted to the backing plate. I finally got the other side done at about 4:30 pm and that included adjusting the parking brake.
I still had to bleed the brakes but I was tired so I packed it in and will finish that part tomorrow. With as much of a hassle this turned out to be, I should have just had our mechanic do it since he is pretty reasonable on prices. I put anti-seize on all of the contact surfaces this time just in case I ever have to take this stuff back apart.