(Mechanical genius required) Brake pedal spongey even after brake shoe adjust

red_eye

JooFox wrote: »

I'm going to bleed them tonight and see if that fixes the issue. Either way, I've ordered new rear hubs as think I'm going to have to destroy the passenger side one as it just isn't budging.
Any tips other than a trolley jack and a crow bar? :rotfl:

any holes for you to wind a bold though? fiat and honda have these pop a bolt in and tighten to pull the drum off

if your really stuck then
remove all nuts/ bolts/ screws securing the drum to the hub.
Bolt the wheel back on and with a rocking motion- side to side, up and down, in and out pull the wheel and the drum

You will need new shoe retaining hardware as you would of pulled the shoes.

JooFox

Astra Mk3 1994 1.4 petrol.
Managed to remove the drum, only took 2 hours, 3 bent heavy duty screw drivers and an axe (that snapped due to force).

The shoe hold down pin was missing so loks like this had snapped and as the shaft was missing I think this was the cause of part of the issue. The shoes were just about holding the slave cylinder in place at it's extremities without letting fluid out.


Also thank you CAJEF for putting my self proclaimed field of expertise in inverted commas. I don't feel like I'm alive unless someone lifts their fingers and bends down their bunny ear fingers whilst refering to me as an engineer t least once a day. Can someone else have a turn at doing it today? Sorry to sound 'needy'

From this day forward I would feel more comfortable if people refer to me as a 'wannabe engineer' :rotfl:

Joe_Horner

Glad you're getting somewhere with this - we'll make a "proper engineer" of you yet

lee678

JooFox wrote: »

Astra Mk3 1994 1.4 petrol.
Managed to remove the drum, only took 2 hours, 3 bent heavy duty screw drivers and an axe (that snapped due to force).

The shoe hold down pin was missing so loks like this had snapped and as the shaft was missing I think this was the cause of part of the issue. The shoes were just about holding the slave cylinder in place at it's extremities without letting fluid out.

is "axe " a special tool made by snap on ?

just what is on the road ? and they wanted 3 2 2 mots ?

JooFox

It was a highly engineered, almost up to snap on standard midi wood axe from my local independant hardware store for £3.
It did a cracking job once I'd got air between the hub and back plate as I could slide the blade in, give it a little tap and then lever it out!

JooFox

Just wanted to let you all know that my brake job makes me feel warm and special every time I touch my brake pedal. Perfect job.
To all budding tryers out there, just do the job yourself.

forgotmyname

You feel warm because the brakes are binding and probably glow red after a few minutes of driving.

Have you tried fixing them?

My sister tried changing a wheel (ONCE) snapped both keys for the wheel locks and joined the RAC, Left the car for 3 days and called them out.

red_eye

JooFox wrote: »

I'm going to bleed them tonight and see if that fixes the issue. Either way, I've ordered new rear hubs as think I'm going to have to destroy the passenger side one as it just isn't budging.
Any tips other than a trolley jack and a crow bar? :rotfl:

new hubs? what for? they have nothing to do with brakes

Joe_Horner

red_eye wrote: »

new hubs? what for? they have nothing to do with brakes

Depends on the set-up. Lots of drum brakes on non-driven axles use the drum as the hub as well - fixed stub axle on the backplate, wheel bearings in the drum.

forgotmyname

Or silly Volvo's, Rear brake disc's that are also drums.

What a great idea. WHY?