I did my rear drums a month ago and I have had no problems.... Went to the Ford dealer to get it inspected and they said I installed the brakes wong... I put the primary on the secondary and visa versa. Is this true??? I dont remember there being a difference but its been a while.... And Im new to the rear drum thing.

thanks

they also didnt like my headlights... I smoke tinted them so it looks better with the ALL black.... I dont see much of a difference at night, but they wouldnt pass it
see gallery pics

 

your first problem, taking it to the dealer. All the want is money. as for the brakes, i always do mine and I even use a haynes/chiltom manual to look at, and I have NEVER seen anything about primary vs. secondary. I dont know what to tell you. maybe buy a haynes and look it up?

 

well I took it to another place and asked them about the headlights and they said NO problem they will pass them. I wanted to check the brakes out and didnt feel good over the weekend and it never got done so Its getting inspected again today and Ill see what This shop says about the brakes, I dont think there is anything wrong but Hey Im not perfect and maybe I didn screw it up.

 

Primary shoe (the front one) is normally shorter (length of friction lining) than the rear. So, if you have the long one on the front side, you do indeed have them reversed


Steve

 

One thing to remember for the rear drum brakes...what you may see the forward facing pads and the rear facing pads, they are different. I found out the hard way. Set the pads side by side or one over the other. The largest pad faces to the rear and the smaller to the front. Each wheel has two sizes to em.

 

I wouldn't have passed it either.

 

Well it passed today

I had to do the NEW emmisions test though and that was an extra 40 bucks....
Oh well for 100.00 its leagal now!!

I dont see the problem with the lights I can SEE just fine at night and have NO problems....

the place today did find a exhaust mount broken and needed to fix that to pass but said NOTHING about the rear brakes so I guess Ill have to look at them myself and see whats up. Braking seems to be fine... would I have a problem if they are wong??

Thanks

 

Mine fell apart in the drum and I didnt even know it til I got to the brake shop to bleed my lines...they took off the rear drum and parts just fell out. (maybe I missed something else?)

 

You may only have a problem under hard braking, if you have the shoes reversed. They are called "Self Energizing" brakes, the shorter front shoe pushes the rear shoe into the drum, to aid in braking.

BTW, rule #1 when replacing brakes, do one side at a time. That way, you can always look at the other side to see how they go back together


Steve

 

YES!! GOOD advise!! I do do that but I "thought" I did it right...

Oh well I guess the best way to learn is fail first, and learn from it!! Than Do it Better the second time.....

 

thats the only thing you can do, try and try again. also, dont pull one of the springs, and slip off the spring, then fall over and hit the bowl with all the pieces in it spilling them everywhere, in the dirt, without a magnet 200 miles away from home. that stinks, trust me.

 

sounds like you.... read that in a book somewhere... Ya thats it!!

Well at least we can say we did it or Tried to do it!
Lots and LOTS of people just have someone else do it.
Its like the saying goes
Getting there is Half the FUN.... and it IS!!