How i almost lost both service and e brake at once

[mohammad]

Its been awhile since i was last on here.

Thank you so much Top fuel for sharing the photos here: https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...l=1#post146032 , I tried to replace my shoes myself and i couldn't get the drum to fit.I noticed the shoes had some side to side motion, so I was confused if maybe the toothed sections should not be touching at all. I tried to reassemble the shoes with the toothed part of the adjuster not overlapping but the adjuster & shoes wouldn't sit flat against the backing plate. So finally I put the old shoes on and drove to a mechanic.They ordered their own shoes, The first brand they tried also didnt fit, So now i dont feel as dumb.

When I reassembled my old shoes into the car I gave myself a cut and because of that i was in a rush to finish the job. When reassembling the shoes i forgot to re-install the small spring that goes from the auto adjuster to the trailing shoe.

After reassembly the brake pedal was reasonably firm and the e-brake worked as normal. When i departed for the mechanic because i did not re-install that small spring that goes from the auto adjuster to the rear shoe, The adjuster fell out of place. The loss of the adjuster meant that the e-brake no longer worked at all as the e-brake pivots against the auto adjuster. Furthermore the pistons ended up binding and I was told by the mechanic that it is both possible that the piston would have fallen apart and I would have lost all brake fluid. The service brake (normal foot brake) essentially went to the floor and scared the crap out of me. Thankfully I did not loose any brake fluid and since I did not open the other drum up the other brake circuit still worked, the e-brake still worked but only one side and I was able to stop even though the pedal basically went to the ground.


I paid for aftermarket shoes and drums, now when i drive around i have this constant screeching sound, that reminds me that i was too cheap for OEM parts.

To conclude im now a little scared of driving the ****box.

Whats also great to know is that guy that posted the bleed procedure for the car hypothesized the 2 brake circuits were diagonal front to back. That would mean that simultaneous failure of both drums. (Which as i discovered maybe possible if either of the small auto adjuster springs are not installed or are broken). Would result in complete loss of both service(foot pedal) and parking/E-Brake.

[klroger]

Mohammad, Thanks for filling us in, Glad you didn't have an accident because of the brake failure, but it does reinforce taking your time to make sure everything is right before driving, putting everything together & not being in a hurry... Take Pics, then Recheck, Recheck & Recheck...Again, Thanks for being honest about your experience & letting others learn, I think you should take it back tho, to get the screeching sound addressed... That's not right...

[mohammad]

Mohammad, Thanks for filling us in, Glad you didn't have an accident because of the brake failure, but it does reinforce taking your time to make sure everything is right before driving, putting everything together & not being in a hurry... Take Pics, then Recheck, Recheck & Recheck...Again, Thanks for being honest about your experience & letting others learn, I think you should take it back tho, to get the screeching sound addressed... That's not right...

Thats definitely true, But I was in a hurry because i was only reinstalling the old shoes in so i could take it to a mechanic which was frustrating. I was ready to shell out money for a tow truck but i didnt think the car could be towed without the drum and wheel installed and i couldn't leave it overnight as car repairs are technically not allowed in my apartment garage. I was also thinking about whether or not i wanted to go to a hospital as i had cut my finger open on the backing plate and i wasn't sure how i was going to get there. Furthermore, im not easily able to take pictures and use them conveniently because i use my only phone to record for the youtube videos.

In alternative to your idea the car could use a design that doesnt involve a single point of failure for both the service and e-brake....

I think the sound is due to the shoe rubbing as its been slowly going away over the last 100 or so km ive driven, if it doesnt go away in a month ill probably get it looked at, no more opening drum brakes for me.

My number one concern was if i had replaced both sides and forgotten to install the auto adjuster spring that connects it to the shoe. After a very long time one day the auto adjusters may both have fallen out of place causing essentially complete loss of all brakes which is not ideal.

There are a lot of these on the road i wonder if anyone ever has this spring fail and loose brake & ebrake like i did.


Finally if anyone has any photos/videos of their drum brakes they'd like to share with me for inclusion into my next youtube video feel free to DM me.

[foama]

I've had to redo stuff on occaision too. It doesn't pay to do things in a hurry...