This is my first time dealing with a car that has brake drums. Do we need to replace the whole thing while doing rear brakes, or just the brake shoes?
Brake drums are a wear item like disk brake rotors. You inspect and measure the drums when you replace the brake shoes. If they are grooved or worn they can be machined to a smooth surface and re-used...as long as they meet a minimum thickness measurement.
My personal preference is not to re-surface rotors and drums...they are cheap enough that when they are worn, I just replace them instead of machining ("turning") them. Now...at $200+ each, I think I may be inclined to machine them if they need it...LOL.
Realistically, it's going to be years before most of us need to replace brake drums. Your front brakes do most of the braking...so the rear brakes tend to last much longer than the fronts. Hopefully by the time most of us need them, there will be some aftermarket support.
The rear drums in these cars are kind of funky. If you think this car has normal brake drums, you will be scratching your head the first time you take a rear wheel off and think you can just slide the drum off for a quick inspection. The drum, hub and wheel studs are all one assembly that is held on by a single 30mm (or something like that) bolt. There is a single wheel bearing assembly that rides inside the hub of each rear drum. The rear wheel bearings are held in place by a single snap ring. The self-adjusting mechanism of the Mirage's drum brakes is also different from the traditional "star-wheel" self-adjusters used in most American cars with drum brakes.
Now that I think about it, I wonder if a shop needs special equipment to mount and machine an unusual brake drum like this?!? Does anyone know?
Last edited by Top_Fuel; 08-26-2017 at 03:04 PM. Reason: formatting
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)
604_guy (08-27-2017)
Maybe I won't have to do the old "Heat and Beat" to get the drums off when the time comes ?
Although, I suppose the bearings can still go and weld themselves to the axle shaft.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 47.7 mpg (US) ... 20.3 km/L ... 4.9 L/100 km ... 57.3 mpg (Imp)
On the brake turning lathe I've used the drum is aligned and held in place with suitable sized tapered bushing and a backer hub or two cones if necessary. This allows for turning virtually anything with a round centerhole. From what I've seen here on the design of our drums there would be no issue turning them. I would remove snap ring and bearing then business as usual.
Will weld for beer.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE 1.2 automatic: 45.3 mpg (US) ... 19.3 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 54.5 mpg (Imp)
Top_Fuel (08-27-2017)
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)
Well...I suppose that's probably the one good thing about this design.
But you are still going to run into the problem of the brake shoes wearing into the drum and creating a ridge that might prevent the drum from coming off after a few years. You may want to familiarize yourself with the Mirage's drum brakes before this happens...because there's no star wheel to back off the adjustment of the brake shoes. You have to use a screwdriver through the backing plate to engage the adjuster mechanism. I had the drums completely off on my car and still couldn't understand how this worked after staring at it for 10 minutes?!? Here's what's in the service manual...
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)
Wayne (09-12-2017)
Why did you need new drums? Shoes wear but the drums really shouldn't.
I had a 1990 prizm (corolla) that spent it's whole life in WI and had orig drums. Just replaced shoes and that was a few years ago. Rest of car was so rusted out I had to scrap it. Engine and trans still worked well. Sad.