Well after months of trouble free driving, i'm now getting a little chirp (sporadically) when releasing the brakes or handbrake. Sounds like the drivers side rear. Still brakes well with no noise when actually braking.

I'm going to take the drums off and have a look see if it just needs a clean and re-grease, what grease would people recommend for this? Will white lithium brake grease suffice?

 

Further to this - got some ceramic brake grease and some brake clean from ECP.

Cleaned the inner portion of the hub, and removed the drums - drivers side required a couple of bolts and a hammer, the passenger side slid off easily.

Unsure at the time how to fully remove the shoes from the backing plate, lots of guides state to remove springs, but not enough purchase with any pliers to do this. Drivers side had evidence of copper grease on the inner contact surfaces, although dried, passenger side appeared to just be bare metal with no grease at all (think the mouse was in this one!). Cleaned both drum and backing plate (and the outside of the wheel cylinder - shiny!), checked for leaks under the dust covers, applied some ceratec grease to the contact points on the backing plate (the raised bits with shiny metal!), and reassembled the shoe retaining clips. Drums went back on like a dream, and reassembled.

Checked with the handbrake that both drums are still functional, and the annoying chirp/mouse is gone from my brakes! May be placebo, but the handbrake does feel more effective now too.

All the guides I can find online for the drum brakes seem to be a different variant to mine.

 

Edit: turns out Haynes actually mention removing the shoes, adjuster and springs as a complete assembly,  unhooking the tops from the wheel cylinder, then the bottoms from the anchor, rather than removing springs on the vehicle. The Ford workshop manual I was using states to remove the springs first.

Is that a crack in the metal above the wheel cylinder? Doesn't look good in the photo.

9 minutes ago, pcaouolte said:

Is that a crack in the metal above the wheel cylinder? Doesn't look good in the photo.

Sure looks like it when you zoom in.

Looks like flaking paint to me lol 

1 hour ago, stef123 said:

Looks like flaking paint to me lol 

You may be right but i would be having a good poke about😀

I second the ‘flaking paint’

The chirp noise your hearing is just created by the metal parts moving under tension when your operating the brake. Copper greasing the contact point at either end of each brake shoe should sort it. Cables can make a bit of noise too but only usually when worn/corroded.