Rear brakes on a Fiat Pinto with an axle spindle similar to the Mirage yet different

[thx1138guy]

I'm a regular participant on Reddit and someone there had a question about the procedure to do a brake job on the rear drum brakes on a 2001 Lancia Ypsilon which is on the same platform as the Fiat Punto.

The question was: Does the axle nut need to be removed to change the shoes? Initially, I thought it had to be because of how our Mirage rear brakes are configured.

I was surprised to learn that while similar to the Mirage in concept, the configuration is completely different underneath the drum and a better design than the Mirage in that the drums are less expensive because the Lancia Ypsilon \ Fiat Punto have a hub that spins on the axle spindle and the drum fits onto the hub instead of having the hub built into the drum like the 2014/2015 Mirages have.

What's also fascinating with the Fiat design is that the lugs and lug nuts are one piece! Not sure if that's a good thing but I've never seen this before. The mechanic used a 3970 Liqui Moly spray to prevent the drum from sticking to the hub. Didn't know about this product. Great stuff.

Check out this youtube video if you want to learn more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9g6SYo-WR0

[Pimp_Daddy_Patty]

The drum over hub design is the more common setup I believe. At least with the cars ive dealt with in the past.

Some some designs are used because they're simpler at vehicle assembly. This might be the case with the Mirage.

[Fummins]

Yeah, it's hard to find a late model car with the drums part of the hub like the Mirage. I've seen cars like that before and had to go to rockauto to figure out that early 80's accords, preludes and early mazda 3's had drum setups like the Mirage.

It seems like most Euro spec Mirages and N/A market after 2017 ones came with the typical normal looking star wheel brake adjuster instead of the 14/15 ratchet bar adjuster.

As far as wheel studs instead of using nuts to attach the wheel, Be happy with what you have. Wheel bolts suck, if they brake off inside the drum then you're gonna have a bad time. If you break a wheel stud on a normy car you can usually just pound the piece that's left over out and install a new one quick and easy. No drilling or swearing required.

Also, installing big heavy wheels on BMW's or Mercedes with wheel bots is a pita. Spin the wheel to line up the holes and the rotor/drum spins at the same time...

[foama]

I'm a regular participant on Reddit and someone there had a question about the procedure to do a brake job on the rear drum brakes on a 2001 Lancia Ypsilon which is on the same platform as the Fiat Punto.

The question was: Does the axle nut need to be removed to change the shoes? Initially, I thought it had to be because of how our Mirage rear brakes are configured.

I was surprised to learn that while similar to the Mirage in concept, the configuration is completely different underneath the drum and a better design than the Mirage in that the drums are less expensive because the Lancia Ypsilon \ Fiat Punto have a hub that spins on the axle spindle and the drum fits onto the hub instead of having the hub built into the drum like the 2014/2015 Mirages have.

What's also fascinating with the Fiat design is that the lugs and lug nuts are one piece! Not sure if that's a good thing but I've never seen this before. The mechanic used a 3970 Liqui Moly spray to prevent the drum from sticking to the hub. Didn't know about this product. Great stuff.

Check out this youtube video if you want to learn more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9g6SYo-WR0

The Punto as the Ypsilon has a rear axle hub as a part in itself, and the brake drum is simply mounted on it. The torque for the Punto hub nut ( and Panda, and Cinquecento and many others...) is 175Nm, the Mirage has it at 125Nm. The brake design is similar but certainly not identical.

The rear axle design is also similar in appearance, but very different. While the Mirage has a thin sheet of flappy metal across in more or less triangular profile, the FIAT has a round hollow steel bar, pressed flat on both ends where it is welded. That acts very effectively as a rear stabilizer and is very much more solid than on the Mirage.