My Gwagen brakes

[nathan]

hi all,
after 25 years of family service, the Gwagen has pretty much been a death trap to the unitiated in the past few months(ie anyone but me driving it)...push the peddle and pretty much nothing happened at all (unless you count perpetual forward motion)...i kept having to top up the brake fluid and didnt know where it went. the mechanic inspected it and found it was spewing out of the wheel cylinder from the rear drums onto the shoes and drums themselves which im told is not compatible with good braking !! so machined the drums ($70), reshoed the shoes ($60), ordered the repair kit from benz (surprisingly cheap $40each side, even if a few parts didnt fit...WTF - is there another 460 gwagen?),,,then i called up the local slave labour - TJ450!!  thankfully, Tim came around and helped us get the new wheel cylinders ($120ea, top of the pics), new adjuster ($300 ea i think - ouch,bottom of the pics) and all the other bits on.  Keep in mind i am mechanically handicapped so this was quite an adventure for me.
Tim - it took me and my dad 5 mins to do the other one after we did the first one!
now i just need to adjust the adjusters properly, i see theres some vids on youtube i will watch and learn how to do this.(http://youtube.com/watch?v=iN6z0oIZLBk&feature=related)
you can see in the first two pics that the drums themselves are worn(they have a lip on them), and how grease and crap is everywhere including on the shoes. 
you can also see the handbrake cable in the bottom of the pics.

[TJ 450]

Looks good Nathan... 5mins is pretty good going. The arrangement is actually quite simple once you know how it is assembled, it seems. Have you bled the system yet, or is that still on the cards?

Tim

[WGB]

Nathan - haven't you and your Dad done well.

Drum brakes were always a little touchy to get back together and get balanced - particularly the front ones.

I assume they are self adjusting after initial set up and look like they are adjusted by using the hand-brake - some models self adjusted when you put the brakes on in reverse.

I still have the home made notched screw-driver for those crappy little holding springs and plates in position as well as a pair of "Brake-pliers" that are shaped to stretch those long springs.

Because you have skimmed the drums the shoes may not be concentric with the new larger diameter of the drums. They used to sell oversized shoes and latterly shoes that were then machined to the new drum dameter but the new shoes wil slowly wear to the correct shape.

Be very careful when you first drive it as the brakes will be very disappointing until  they bed in - best to go for a drive and slowly and repeatedly put on the bakes from 60k without overheating them until you start to feel them bite.

Seeing Drum brakes takes me back a few decades and reminds me what an enormous advance disc brakes were and are.

Bill

[nathan]

Bill,thanks for the heads up on the likely disappointment when we first drive the car...however, wont be driving anywhere as it seems the damn starter is jammed so i next need to replace that and put the spare on...
Tim, ill try the bleed this morning - back to youtube!

[s class]

I just a few weeks ago replaced the handbrake shoes in my W140 - drum brakes really are unpleasant to work on.  Here I pay about $10 to have the shoes relined!  OK admittedly they are parking brake shoes and therefore smaller than yours.