This is my first subaru, hence first time replacing rear brakes. Chiltons book says if rear drum won't come off, you have to remove a cap, and retract the shoe spring, i've got the cap removed, and i can see nothing inside, stick a screw driver in there and it contacts nothing, what do I need to do to retract the shoes on this. Much thanks. Oh its an 89dl station wagon, 4wd d/r...rear drums, m/t

Chilton's manual "part number 8305' is a POS

 

this is a real hack of a way, but it works:

 

take the brake line off the wheel cylinder, take the two bolts out of the cylinder, find the shoe retainer pins on the back of the dust shield, pry them up and cut them off (they look like nail heads)

 

take the axle nut cotter out, take the (36mm) nut off, in the washer underneath put a small screwdriver in the slot, rap on it once firmly and it should pop off when it spreads

 

pull the drum, you may need a puller to get it started, it's rusted to the splines

 

or beat the crap out of it with a mallet working around the edge of the drum so it gets driven off evenly

 

-POP- all the guts fall out when the drum hits the dirt

 

if you have enough of a lip to not get the shoes off, it's probably out of limits, limit is 7mm thick

 

replace the shoe spring retainer pins with new ones, fresh cotter key yadda yadda

 

anti seize the spline shaft, try to clean the corrosion from the cone washer seat, and the cone washer, some anti seize in the cone seat is very nice the next time you have to do this

Well by the time I got back to reading this post, i'd figured out a different way to do it. Unbolted wheel cylinder and brake line. Pried studs that hold springs out till i could get needle nose plier on them, then twisted it until each spring came off, didn't have a puller so did it the old fashioned way, lots of zep 45 and heat, along with a very persuasive hammer. Once I got it apart i figured out that when the wheel cylinder blew, it made the spring come off to retract the brakes. Basically all I should have had to do is stick a screw driver in and hit the arm/lever inside thats connected to some type of a ridged ratcheting piece and the brakes would have retracted. Just to prove it to myself, i went to other side, pulled the cap, stuck the screw driver in there, and sho' nuf, heard the ratchet release, to 5 minutes to get that side apart, and just a mere 5 vivid cursing hours on the other. But its done, now just have mild whiplash from having brakes that worked so good:lol:

Well by the time I got back to reading this post, i'd figured out a different way to do it. Unbolted wheel cylinder and brake line. Pried studs that hold springs out till i could get needle nose plier on them, then twisted it until each spring came off, didn't have a puller so did it the old fashioned way, lots of zep 45 and heat, along with a very persuasive hammer. Once I got it apart i figured out that when the wheel cylinder blew, it made the spring come off to retract the brakes. Basically all I should have had to do is stick a screw driver in and hit the arm/lever inside thats connected to some type of a ridged ratcheting piece and the brakes would have retracted. Just to prove it to myself, i went to other side, pulled the cap, stuck the screw driver in there, and sho' nuf, heard the ratchet release, to 5 minutes to get that side apart, and just a mere 5 vivid cursing hours on the other. But its done, now just have mild whiplash from having brakes that worked so good:lol:

 

 

essentially the same thing, the problem is that there is no way to know until you get it off, HOW to get it off - that manual is worthless, you can't figure out the ratchet mechanism until it's already off

 

the first time I pulled both I played hell with that OOL lip holding the shoes, the irony is that if I'd gone to the brake that was still good, it would have come off easier and shown me how to take apart the screwed up one... but I started on the one that was the problem - hindsight

 

the second time I went in to them was to replace them with rear disc - that's when I came up with the 'hack technique' of just blowing away the pins and unbolting the whole mess and letting it fall off in a pile - but the pins are cheap, and it doesn't really hurt the cylinder or anything you'd like to re-use

 

the pins can be cut with dikes from the back side, the whole mess off in 5 minutes (depending on the spline corrosion)

 

glad you got it, turning the pin to pop it out of it's cup is a good idea

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