[Blue99]

Hey guys,

This is one of my first posts here, maybe my first. Lot's of great advice on here. Background: 99 Legacy Outback, 170k, lots of rust.

Anyway, I'm doing some routine maintenance while the car is up on jack stands, including the brakes. When I try pulling off my rear passenger side brake disc, one of the brake shoes (the frontside one) is sticking inside the drum. The other is fine.

I've loosened the shoes through the hole in the back. I've pryed and I've hammered at the thing. I'm out of ideas, do you have any? And when the disc is flat against the hub, it spins freely... so it's not rusted to the drum, but something is preventing me from removing it.

Here's a pic for reference, but it's hard to see.

Thanks

 

[tdelker]

The shoe has worn a deep groove in the drum, and now you can't get it out of the groove. You are going to have to Macgyver a way to get that shoe out. If you can release the springs holding the shoe and any retaining clips and pull the drum off with the shoe still in it, that's one way. Another way is to get something through the adjuster hole, hook the pad and pull pull pull.

Looking at all that rust, I'm sure all the shoe hardware should be replaced (and it's relatively cheap anyway). You will also most likely need a new drum since the groove is so deep, there probably isn't enough meat to turn it down. So cut where you will. Probably the only thing you want to avoid damaging is the piston (slave cylinder) that pushes the two pads apart, which gives you the braking force. That could cost a bit more to replace.

Good luck! Looks like a fun project

Tom

 

[gbhrps]

blue99,
You can't get it off because the shoe's face isn't flatly aligned to the face of the drum portion of the rotor. You have to force the shoe to properly align. Its presently jamming against the drum. Your bad shoe has come off the backing plate in the center of the shoe. There is normally a short coil spring that holds it flat to the backing plate in the middle of the shoe. I suspect that the spring and its pin have rusted off.

This is letting the shoe swing out in its middle and jam against the drum portion of the rotor. What you need to do is take a flat bladed screwdriver, and pry the shoe back into place on the backing plate, while you pull the drum off of the hub.

Stick the screwdriver into the shoe braking material halfway between the top and bottom of the front shoe. Then pry the screw driver against the rotor, forcing the shoe to the backing plate. That should square the face of the shoe up with the drum and allow it to come off. You may have to start prying at the top and bottom of the shoe first, to move it a little at first, until you can get to the shoe's middle section.

At this stage of rust, don't worry about destroying the shoe or the rotor. From the picture you provided, you need all new brake parts for sure. Good Luck!

 

[Blue99]

That actually makes sense. Unfortunately it's not so much as a project vehicle as it is a need-to-fix-in-a-few-days vehicle because my DD broke down. I can touch the edge of the stuck shoe with a screw driver... Ill keep hammering at it.

Worst case scenario ill just need to resurface the disc surface the best I can, I don't have the tools to try and cut it off.

 

[tdelker]

Get a bigger hammer

I the 'fun' was meant as to tongue in cheek. Good luck!

 

[Seabass]

Why was your foot in there in the first place? :hide:

 

[cardoc]

You may as well just get a new rotor, set of parking shoes, parking shoe hardware and the brake pads with hardware.

On the axle side of the backing plate you will see a couple small flat round ends to the pins that hold the park shoes against the shoe side of the plate. Break the ends off to assist in getting the parts off the plate and the rotor removed.

See the attached so you know what's inside the rotor.

Proper tools for the job is always an essential on the list. And if your not having fun, your not learning anything.

 

[Saint J VT]

I had that happen when I replaced all the brakes last summer. Both sides were stuck. The left was worse. I ended up bending that triangular clip at the top and ended up installing all new parking brake components, including new L & R strut bars that link the upper portions of shoes together.

When my drums finally did come off, here the OEM pads fell off the shoes and onto the floor.

My mechanic had done brake work on that car, however, he never got into the parking brakes, even when we replaced all four rotors around 60K miles.

When I did the work last summer there was 122K on the odometer.
Now, two to three clicks and the parking brake will literally stop the car like it is supposed to! I did turn the adjustment several turns that lies under the rear of the console, pretty easy, actually.

 

[cardoc]

The "hat" portion of the rotor, just like a regular drum, will catch and hold the salts from winter road clearing and the salts corrode the bonding material as well as the metal particles of the friction material.

The only way to prevent the damage is to clean everything twice a year. Unfortunately this involves disassembly of the brakes.