jack up the rear, take the wheel off, and just pull. make sure you don't have the parking brake set, though. if it doesn't come off easily, gently tap with a rubber mallet from the back.

Mike

 

There's also a dust cap and a driveshaft nut to unsrew after you take the wheel off. It is recommend (Haynes manual) to re-used that driveshaft nut a maximum of 4 times. Torque it back at 173 in-lbs.

 

oops! forgot that.

Mike

 

I think You can unbolt the hole thing from the back side of the drum if you do not have the massive 20 or 23 mm socket it takes to get the spindle nut off with.

 

Correction: it's 173 Ft-lbs

 

i went through this so ill say it again....

make sure you disengage the ebrake.

 

its a 30mm nut that holds the drum on, also my drums do not come off unless it use a slide hammer then they come right off.(yes the ebrakes off)

 

Your brakes may have been starting to eat into your rotors just a little. Last time i took mine off it slide right off.

 

The first sentence of that last post made absolutely no sense.

Replace the word 'brakes' with 'shoes' and replace 'rotors' with 'drums'.

 

Thanks i am retarded....... lol. Its not every day you talk about drums. Now that just about every car comes with 4 will disc brakes. Drums are kinda a thing of the past. Well Almost

 

This is just what I was looking for [] .

I want to install new drums and shoes on my girlfriends Focus. I already have the parts and took the wheel off a week or so ago and found that massive nut. Unfortunately I didn't have the right socket so I had to put the wheel back on. I need to buy a socket for this job. What is the correct size? I saw someone said 30mm, can someone verify this please.

Also, 173 ft-lbs of torque is insane...is that seriously the correct amount? Is it crucial that I torque it exactly or can I just tighten the nut as much as possible? Do I need an impact wrench to get it off?

Any info you guys could provide would be very helpful. I don't exactly want to have to bring it into a shop to install these parts. I would much rather do it myself.

 

can't confirm the size of the nut, but the torque is a spec. one must not eff with specs. there is a reason for them. nobody wants a wobbly wheel. That being said. having worked in ford assembly plants, the spec is probably actually 173 lb.ft. +- 10lb.ft. or something of the like. If your torque wrench only goes to 150 (which a lot of them do) i wouldn't worry too much about it. Thats not really that much anyway. You can just put a two foot breaker bar on your ratchet and push down with about 85 lbsf. if you want to see insane torque specs, work on tractors.

 

Thanks for the torque info bwojdyla, I appreciate your help. It looks like I'm going to need to buy some more tools []. My current torque wrench only goes to 75 ft-lbs.

Tractor torque [eek]....I'll stick to cars.

Can anyone confirm the socket size needed to get the nut off?

 

I needed to gently tap with a rubber mallet from the back to take off the wheels. Take off the dust cap by inserting a flat screw driver in the space slot and push the cap out.

 

i was planning on replacing the shoes last weekend. i had attempted to take off the 4 bolts from the brake backing plate but the bolt on the top/driver side (or passenger side depending on where you start) has minimal room for a socket. wondering if its best to remove the lower shock mount bolt to gain more access??

 

IMO this job is more then it looks.

Here is the problem i ran into. In order to loosen that 30mm bolt how to you hold the drum from spinning?

Dont you need some kind of breaker bar that you bolt to the drum using the lug nuts and turn it so the ground stops the drum from rotating?

Will using the Ebrake hold the drum enough to bust the 175lb nut loose? Then you release it to take the drum off?

You could maybe make a breaker bar thing with 2 holes drilled in it to bolt to the drum so you can pry against it.

 

Removing the lower shock bolt will give you more room to work.

For removal of the spindle nut, use the ebrake to activate the rears and lock the drum in place. I've never had issue with it not having enough force.

 

just take the 4 10mm bolts off the back... use one of those exstension things with the wobbly ends... i dont know what they are called deal with it.

 

If I wanted to paint the drum cover couldnt I just mask the area off and just spray the drum as is? I dont want to tear it all apart.

 

When i had my 02 sensor replaced a few weeks ago i asked if they did brakes and they do. So i asked if he could inspect them.

I believe he used a 30mm socket for the large bolt under the dust cap.

If you search youtube there are a few how to videos.

I kinda thought the bolt would turn with the drum but i guess the drum has the bearing and it rotates around the axle so i wouldnt need to keep the axle from spinning. Not sure why i thought it was like this.

He didnt remove anything from the back to get the drum off just the dust cap and the large 30mm nut.

Im planning to repaint my rear drums also but im not going to use spray, im going to use the thicker stuff in the can and use a brush or small sponge to paint it on with.

If i have time im going to remove the drums clean the old dust out and then grease the spots where the shoes rub the back plate, bevel the pads so they stop squeeking then put the drums back on clean and paint em.

 

You don't have to hold the drum at all while loosening, someone posted incorrectly earlier in the thread. You do need to slowly rotate the drum while retightening that big nut, it helps the bearing guts fall into the right relationship with each other.

Bevel the shoes, it works wonders, Both mine are done like that and hardly any noise at all, before using exact same shoes it would drive you crazy.

 

If they have been on the car a while they will be hard to get off, you may have to use a hammer and pry the hub away from the back plate. I had to use the claw part on the hammer to really work them off.

The problem is there is a gap between the plate and the hub and it allows water and road debris to get into that gap and rust the edge of the drum.

Once you drag the drum over this rusted spot then it comes right off.

If your replacing the pads it might be even harder to get the hub back on if you dont clean it up a little. AND if the pads are perfectly centered to teh plate. The retainer pins have a little wiggle room

(These pictures are of different drums on other cars i found online so you get an idea what im talking about)

The green area is where the drum wears and it creates a high spot on the inside of the drum. In red is where they tend to rust up making it hard to remove the drum.

If you use a grinder, or a steel wheel brush is what i used clean up that rusted edge will make installing the drum back on the car ALOT easier. You wont have to pound it back on and possibly damage the new pads.

New drums are easy to slip on because they dont have this rusted edge that wants to bind up when sliding it over the new shoes.

Dont be shy about sanding down that rusted area clean it up really good so they slip on easy. I didnt do my side that well and they didnt go on near as easy as my brothers side he spent more time cleaning the rust off and his side slipped on like butter.

 

I just painted mine, i forgot about gravity. [rolleyes]