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90- legacy rear brake help - please


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Hey there guys, my name is Drew and im writing u from

belleville ontario, i belong to neoncanada.com and drive a DirTy 2dr neon CLICK HERE

 

i drive a 90 legacy L 2wheel for my winter beater,

my left rear brake is mucked bigtime, im just about to tackle it

now, but this is my 1st brake job, what can u guys tell me.

i know its real bad, seized and im metal on metal.

so any help u guys can give me would be awesome.

 

and by the way, after my neon im buyin a WRX, so dont be hatin on the neon too much,

thanks

Drew.

 

i will be checking this post often,

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Welcome.

 

First off, you should have a repair manual. I spent $100.00 in ’91 for a set of the FSM’s and they have paid for themselves at least 30 times. Haines and Chiltons sell manuals for a lot less and I’m sure other members can give you’re their preferences. Any of these will give you a good step by step procedure for the brakes.

 

You’ll also need the right tools. A 3/8” drive socket set and combination wrench set may be sufficient, along with some wire brushes to clean things up. I’ve got rear discs, but you may need a couple of bolts to help pull your drums off. (Someone help me with the size) Brake spring and adjuster tools are nice but not absolutely needed. Don’t forget jack stands.

 

You’ll most likely need a good rust penetrate to help get things apart and some good high temperature brake grease for the sliding parts when you put things back together.

 

Of course you need shoes and probably new drums and hardware like the self adjusters and maybe a bleeder screw or two. You may be well advised to get rebuilt cylinders too. I went Chinese for my rotors because of the age of my car. Time will tell. The point is you don’t need ceramic pads or super expensive components in my opinion. They’re nice, but just make sure any worn or rusted parts are replaced.

 

You’ll also need some vinyl tubing, new brake fluid, and a helper to bleed the brakes and exchange all the old fluid. Bleed the fronts while you’re at it too.

 

For a 2WD ‘ru, it should be easy to check, repack, or replace the rear bearings if warranted while you’re at it and have things apart.

 

I almost forgot, you’ll also need another car to run out and get things you didn’t think you’d need when you started the job. I’m prone to take things apart first so I can take the pieces to the parts store and match the replacements.

I’m sure there’s a lot I leaving out, but that’s why there are others with a lot more experience.

Good Luck

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I have drums on the back of my 97 Legacy, and disc on the front, so I better let someone else guide you on that. I dont know how the emergency brake is set up on rear disc. I know that on some cars the piston is turned back in to caliper instead of being pushed back with C- clamp. Have you used the search on this board for this? you might try that.

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Well, the discs/rotors have internal drums to serve as cable operated handbrake. More of that later:

 

BEFORE disassembling anything else, get a big G-clamp and push on the inside of the caliper and the outside brake pad. This will open up the caliper by pushing the piston back in. If the pins are in good shape you can do this with your hands, instead of the clamp. I strongly advise against pushin the piston back with the caliper dismounted, because you risk running skew.

 

Undo the lower caliper bolt, bolt head faces inward, and the caliper should be able to swing up and allow you to remove the old pads and shims - if they are there. Lower the caliper again, and do the bolt finger tight.

 

Next, loosen the caliper bracket bolts. There are two of these, and you should be able to work out which ones they are. Have a thick wire or similar ready to support the caliper and bracket. It should be possible to hook it up to the lower dish/cup of the suspension strut. Avoid flexing/bending the brake hose, try to keep movements smooth and the hose unstressed.

 

The disc may have a small screw attaching it to the hub, this will need to come out. Next up, the handbrake cable needs loosening, or otherwise the drum part of the disc will have trouble clearing the internal brake shoes. Still, it pays to try to wiggle the disc off, you never know you might be lucky.

 

Under the center console, where the handbrake handle lives, you can loosen the cable tension, and hopefully the shoes will clear the drums. Otherwise you will have to pop out the oval rubber grommet in the drum backing plate and pull the shoes inward. Hopefully this won't be necessary...it's a pain, and you will need a good flashlight and tweezers. There is a small cogwheel visible and it needs to be rotated to move the shoes. Experiment yourself to find out which way, I can't remember. There might be locking plate on the cogwheel, in which case you will need to get a long, thin screwdriver in there and release it.

 

When you put everything back together, put a small amount of copper grease on all the bolt threads. The two caliper pins/bolts should also be greased to allow the caliper to slide easily back and forth.

 

Good luck!

 

We'll be waiting here if there more questions...

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Sorry I assumed you had conventional drums in the back. Setright has covered the rear discs pretty well so I’ll just add a couple thoughts.

 

When you compress the pistons with the C clamp, open the bleeder screws. This keeps crap from being forced backwards into the ABS pump. Close them to keep out air when you’ve got the piston in. If the pistons don’t move easily, you may need to rebuild or replace them.

 

My calipers weren’t sliding very well so I popped off the 4 rubber seals (lock pin boots) and removed the caliper sliding bushings (lock pin sleeves) to be able to clean the old grease out and re-lube them and the sliding bolt (lock pin) so they moved easily. Parts stores have high temp brake grease for this.

 

The rotor/drums do have two bolt holes to help you pull them off the hub. I needed some penetrating oil at the hub/disc contact area. I don’t remember any screw holding the disc to the hub (but look) and didn’t have to fuss at all with the parking brakes.

 

I never found after market pads that came with all the shims Subaru uses. I wound up using one shim for each pad and some of the anti-squeal compound between the shim and pad.

 

When you’re ready to bleed them, use a turkey baster to remove almost all of the old fluid from the reservoir, but not enough to let any air into the ports. Fill it and bleed, re-fill and bleed, keeping an eye on the fluid level.

 

I needed a ½” drive breaker bar to remove the caliper mounting bracket (support) bolts. I also forgot to recommend a torque wrench when reassembling.

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