Well that was interesting.

[Chris142]

I've been having some problems with the rear brakes on my Jeep. I finally gave up and took it to a place called brake masters. Let them look at it to see if I'm just overlooking the obvious or what.

The only thing they found was that the drums were slightly oversize. Odd because they have never been turned or ran into the metal.

They were .005 and .015 OS.

I didn't think thats enough to cause a problem but since everything else is new theres not much left to replace.

The shoes have been on it about 3 weeks and still look new.

One of their employees said that I just needed to sand the shoes a little and stick new drums on it(I agree and thats what I done).

Another guy wanted to replace the shoes and springs too.

I can understand that he would prefer new shoes to go with the new drums. But as I said the shoes are only 3weeks old.

These 2 guys got into a heated argument about what to recomend to fix the thing.

Yelling at each other and made a scene.

I agree that both had their merrits. All they had to do was to give me the customer both options and let me decide.

But with them acting a fool I had them put the car back together and I bought drums and put them on myself.

Besides they wanted $240 to install new drums. $79 ea for the drums and "Labor" but they already had the old drums off. They just slide off the studs after removing the wheel. I felt that there price was a little high for the amount of work involved.

New drums were $32 ea @ AutoZone BTW and took me 15 minutes to sand the shoes and put the new drums on.

IMO the guy that recomended just drums was trying to be fair to the customer by not over selling stuff.

And IMO the other guy wanted everything new so there would not be any future problem.

Anyway about 20 minutes ago I got a call from a guy that must be the owner of that store asking me what I saw and what happened at the store.

Not wanting to choose sides I just told him that they couldn't agree as to the proper repair.

Be interesting to find out what else went on there today.

 

[Ike_Clanton]

What model Jeep?

Dad had a 2001 Cherokee that had essentially zero rear brakes, and I always assumed it was a bad proportioning valve, because you could cinch the parking brake handle about 4 clicks and they'd work fine, but if you hit the pedal the car was practically standing on it's nose before the rears would do anything.

 

[Chris142]

02 Wrangler

 

[Ike_Clanton]

And your original issue was? You never really said.

 

[tomcat27]

what problem are you having? I had a mysterious problem with the rear brakes on my comanche where the rear brakes would drag. I went over everything thoroughly - over and over. finally talked to a jeep buddy of mine - replacing the parking brake cable cables back by the wheels fixed my prob

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: Ike_Clanton
And your original issue was? You never really said.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/1834241/

 

[Ike_Clanton]

Weird. I suspect dad had the same issue you did, though perhaps not because I did have the rears adjusted within an inch of their life and they still were lazy. I never did mic the drums, though.

 

[eljefino]

I remember reading on allpar that the k-car brakes needed tension on the e-brake cable to have the drums work normally. If it's true that's a junk design, what if that cable rusts out? They hinted the brakes would still work but I assume might apply unevenly, ie the sides of the shoes by the wheel cylinder only.

There's a bit of voodoo to drum brakes with the servo action, it has to grab to twist the shoes so they grab harder. I'm suprised the meaty linings didn't take up enough distance to compensate for the bigger drums.

But since you're "in the business" and know the guys they should have not started the upsell with you. Arguing like that with everyone who walked in the door, and coworkers who should watch my back, would up my blood pressure to an unhealthy level.

 

[Gary Allan]

Sounds like a hissing contest was going on behind the scenes at that shop and you provided the put down point for these two to square off.

 

[occupant]

I'm too cheap to take my car to a brake shop until I screw something up.

$80 of parts from RockAuto
$200 parts car with good drums
$76 for a master cylinder and having my local mechanic bleed it

$356 cash paid out

I've sold $340 of parts off this wagon since.

My brake job thus far has cost me $16.

 

[Gary Allan]

I applaud your energy. I'm sorta the same way, except instead of money, I look at future avoided labor and costs. I'll bend over backwards to configure something to avoid ever working on it again.

Thank goodness that first knuckle dragging brute figured out how to roll that log or boulder.

 

[occupant]

I finally got paid the labor for my own brake job. Sold the wagon for scrap, got $100, they hauled it off for me. I could have got more had I hauled it myself, but I have nothing with a hitch. I understand scrap cars pay $160 a ton right now, so someone just made $220 or so off me.

But now I'm at -$84 for the brake job and I still have a box of trim goodies left over from the wagon. Those will see eBay shortly.

 

[andyd]

I feel your pain Chris. Up here in MA, my beach buggy, an '88 Grand wag just got new rear lines, brake shoes, a hard ware kit and a wheel cylinder. That was last month. This month, it was the ATF cooling lines. It is reeeal rusty underneath. But there are few more runs in the old girl yet. The brakes have been gone through, got a nice pair of tires for the back. The engine is a re-manned long block I bought in 93. This is the third Wagoneer it has been in. The trans is a Torque Flight 727 in the AMC case.

Saturday, I sheared the brass fitting that is the place where the cooling line is coupled. I was able to back it out using an EZ Out. I had to take out the front drive shaft to work. While it was out, I greased the Cardan joint. One cap on the front U joint wasn't spinning. I put in the vise and used pliers on the cap to spin it. It broke free but still was tight. I went out back and took a good cap full of greasy bearings from a shaft I had harvested. I used some 220 paper to clean up the race, it was rusty. I cleaned it up some, but it was pitted. Oh well, I worked some grease into it and cleaned out the grease passage. I put the caps back on and clamped them loosely in the vise. Then I pumped grease into the u joint. When I climbed under the Jeep to replace the shaft, I gave the caps one last spin.I couldn't tell them a part by feel.