Fiesta Mk4 (1996) Rear Brake Shoe And Cyl Replacement

[buggs]

Im currently disassembling the rear brakes on the MK4 Fez, with a view to replacing the shoes (reluctantly as they have a good amount of padding on them) and more importantly the offside cylinder (which has p155ed brake fluid everywhere in the drum and made a right old mess in there.). :o

After visiting a well known national MOT place with a name which sounds like Quick-spit (and reputedly service to match), and being quoted £180 :( for the job, I decided to hedge my bets and attempt to DIM (do it me'sen). With a quote for the parts from a local motorfactor pricing up at £8.00+Vat (about £10) for the wheel cylinder and £16+Vat (about £19) for the shoes, the job should cost around £25 - we have some Dot 4 in stock already and this defo needs replacing. Atleast if I DIM, i know it's been done badly, therefore no guessing and surprises.

First a picture of what it should look like on both sides when reassembled (picture taken on near side pre disassembly - which is not full of brake fluid and muck) :

This is for anyone who forgot to take pictures before they started and needs a point of reference other than the miserable pictures in their Haynes manual.

Those retaining clips you see in the first photo, have to be removed first, according to Haynes this is done with pliers, I gave up on that idea and elected to use something else to compress the clip in a bit and a screwdriver to lever it off the retaining pin. This worked a treat on both shoes. I also got both shoes off together - sort of unintentionally, but this enabled me to get them to the bench to deal with (and document the positions of) all the springs which worked out better.

This is what the brake shoes from the drivers side looked like when they were taken to the bench:

Notice all the filth around it, like a muddy oil, with hairy shards of metal in it - this photo was taken as a reminder of where and which way round each spring goes. Also, notice the 'Adjuster Strut' and its position, which according to haynes is important, it is supposed to be a ratchet, but on mine the round part does not spin in either direction - maybe its just buggered.

This is what was left behind on the car:

Ignore the white thing, that is just blue paper (hard, not fibrous kitchen roll) wrapped around the sub axel and held in place with a fat sellotape tube to protect the stub axel from the gunk, rust particles and the brush used to dislodge them.

The cheapy yellow screwdriver (you may have noticed it in other pictures) is your assistant for removing springs without putting holes in your fingers!:

Thats about it for now, I need to purchase some brake cleaner from somewhere to make a good job of the cleanup before buying the new parts from the motorfactor's shop, I'm going to ring Ford tomorrow for a laugh to see how much they charge for the genuine Motorcraft parts. Motaquip, Motorcraft - whats the difference; the price is!

Edited October 28, 2010 by Flic
To tidy up language :)