1998 Ford F150 rear drum brakes

Jun 22, 2025 Last reply: 1 year ago 3 Replies

Made a boo boo and left the e brake engaged for 50 miles and turns out the passenger rear drum locked up and I left a long skidmark in a parking lot trying to leave before it eventually freed up.



Finally opened that side up yesterday, no hardware is broken, but the front shoe overheated, has a lot of cracks in the material and its quite thin, so I am figuring on new shoes and hardware kit...may as well do both sides.



Seems a lot of people replace the wheel cylinders at the same time, but when I pressed the brake pedal all the way down, the cylinder works both ways so despite that heat, I guess its ok.



The drum itself looks ok, no grooves but last time I did a system like this over 20 yrs ago, we turned the drums at the auto parts store to resurface them.



These days, I think thats a lost art? Do they still do it at Autozone etc?



Otherwise, if I dont get them resurfaced, will there be problems down the road with new shoes?



I wouldn't but people do argue about that:

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Yes it's a common service still.

Many of us are in the habit of purging brake fluid every year or two as it's hygroscopic generally and moreso for vehicles like yours which have sat a long while.

The drum that over heated likely has surface damage and is out of round. I would turn both rear drums if they are still thick enough to do so.

I was able to pull that drum off, tough deal as the rust between where the hub and the center of the drum rusted into each other and seized.

Found a service station with a machine to turn them, and he has that one, says will be ready today.

Working on the other side, can turn the drum freely so the shoes were already backed off this side very loosely, and having the same problem with the rust seized area. I am letting WD40 soak in overnight, and will try an air hammer today. I think theres a risk of ruining the axle seal so I wanna be careful.

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