Trying to figure out if it's worth me doing all 4 brake points myself or have the shop do them?

95 Blazer

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depends on the amount of rust on them...can be fairly easy, or can be a lot of hammering and liquid wrench. lol

 

I can't see there being too much rust. Body has not one lick of rust and underside is pretty clean other than the usual body surface rust. Nothing like back in NS lol

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That's true...I forget that rust isn't that big of an issue elsewhere in Canada lol. I couldn't see it being very hard then. I've never done it myself, but I've watched my buddy do some (he's a GM mechanic) and it doesn't look all that hard.

 

Did it on mine. It's an '86 wasn't too bad. Just remember to adjust the shoes in before trying to put the drum back on.

 

Believe it or not, I'd rather deal with rust and having rust coating or electric rust proof systems than deal with the damn rock they put on the roads here during winter.

They cry here when they get a few cm's and rather than putting down sand that they say they do (which heck, Kamloops is made of sand) then use damn rocks which beats the crap out of car. Never really had an issue with window crack back home but so far with one inter I have 4 bad crack and 60 or so small and noticeable divits in the windshield and paint chips.

Anyways, back on track here, ya trying to find a deal on pads and may just try doing them myself. Have worked on front disc's before but been sometime since I touched drums.

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The issues typically are rust AND wear in the drums Since the brake shoes do not ride exactly on the edge of the drum, they wear into the drum leaving a lip on the outer edge. This lip typically rusts compounding the issue.

There should be an access hole on the backing plate that you can reach in to adjust the shoes in away from the drum to make it easier to get the drum off.

Once you are in there, you have the springs to contend with. These can be a pain without the right tools. I recommend buying the proper tools for drum brakes as they make the job a LOT easier. And take a picture of the spring configuration before you take anything else off so you know how everything goes back together.

When you buy your new shoes, buy the spring kit so you do not have to mess with rusted old springs (that is unless yours look really good).

You will also want to make sure that the slack adjusters are free to do their job. One end will be threaded and the other end should spin free. If this is not moving freely on both the threads and the free end, you may be able to clean things up to where they will work. If not, buy new adjusters as well.

 

How close does this video look for working on a 95 Blazer.

Sure there are things like using "cutters" I will not do, plus will take pictures so I'm sure everything is back in it's proper place, but does this video give pretty much the procedure on how to change the shoes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIqOxiUEFeo

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Gets the gist of the repair down. Your brakes will have heavier springs. I used to use a good pair of needle nose vise grips, but with the proper drum brake tools, it is quite a bit easier.

 

Will see if my friend has that tool. As I now have this truck I hope to try and do all the possible repairs, installs etc. that I can without a shop. Sure I will have to stop into a shop at some point for something, but jotting around on forums and doing the stuff hands on is pretty much what I did with my bikes.

If the install goes good for the first set of shoes, may take snap shots to post small how to on doing rear shoes. Even if it's just for me to look back at lol

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