Hi, Am replacing rear brake shoes. Had a leaky cylinder that was causing the rear-right brake to lock up and the tire to skid on moderately hard stops in wet weather. Anyways, I started with the good side (left rear), replaced shoes, springs etc. But for the life of me I can't get the drum back on, it appears the shoes aren't retracting enough. I've bled the cylinder in hopes of getting the two pistons (name?) to retract a bit more. But no go. I get my parts from VW parts place and they know their parts inside out so unlikely I have different sized shoes for another car. Plus I put the old and new side by side and they appear the same size. I've backed off the emerg. brake cables too. I'm pretty sure I have all the connector bits and springs arranged correctly. I have the self-adjusting pin pushed all the way up. I haven't got to putting shoes and drum back on the right hand side yet.
I figured it out, there are front shoes for the left and right side. Either side will fit in the front position and all the bits and pieces and springs all fit into place. But using the wrong one throws the geometry out and the shoes end up further out and the drum won't go back on. The correct front shoe is the one that lets the adjuster key sit on the side of the shoe facing the backing plate.
The brake shoes last such a long time that it's easily 10 years between rear brake jobs, so I forget. Hopefully this post will still be here 10 years from now, I'm going to post a reminder. Re: the big lower spring, the method that worked this time was to assemble the brake shoe assembly (according to Bentley), attach the emergency brake cable (back off the tensioner on the hand brake lever), fit the 2 anchor pins and keepers, and leave the bottom of the shoes sitting outboard of the bottom anchor points. This brings the bottom of the shoes together and it's easier to get the lower spring on. Then using a foot and the massive leg muscle, push on the lower part of the shoe to pop it into place on the lower anchor. Do the same to the other shoe.This ultimately was easier than trying to wrestle the spring into place even with a spring plier tool.
Another note to self, the one-man-brake bleeders don't work as well as having a helper press the brake pedal. I have a Mity-Vac vacuum tool but it sucks more air from around the bleeder nipple and rubber adapter that it doesn't draw a steady column of brake fluid. Started out on a test drive and discovered I had no brakes. I then bought a KD- Tool 2538 one-man-bleeder but couldn't get the tiny hole in the rubber adapter over the bleeder nipple. But I took the one-way valve off and put it some tubing and used the nipple adapter from the Mity-Vac to make a tube. Then got a helper to pump the brake pedal. Perfect and fast.
Another note to self, the one-man-brake bleeders don't work as well as having a helper press the brake pedal. I have a Mity-Vac vacuum tool but it sucks more air from around the bleeder nipple and rubber adapter that it doesn't draw a steady column of brake fluid.
I always use the EEZI BLEED tool. Instead of a vacuum it uses the tire pressure (2bar) to pressurize the lines. With vacuum you only get, if lucky, about -0.6bar. It also fills up the reservoir in the same time!
Thanks SFC, the EEZI Bleed looks like a great tool. I have a stack of other-season tires in the garage I can use for pressure.I'll check on the availability of the tool in Canada (auto tools are way more expensive here than what I see advertised in the USA).
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