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BTW, I warped my new rotors in less than 3 months. I've never warped a set of rotors, even when towing trailers. They all made in China , a even the Napa premiums I bought. I'm looking at a set from the dealer, they are cast in China, turned and harden in the US. So you better have a talk with him.

Sometimes, the way to teach a slacker how to NOT fall down is to let them land. If you catch them every time, they have
no need to learn to do for themselves. If he helped with the brakes, he might not abuse them (and you) as much.

Yikes, sounds like a real winner. "Looking after him" might involve a bit of tough love to get him to fend for himself. This is just a suggestion from an outside perspective.

Originally Posted by sirjames

Why even bother?
sounds like he doesn`t appreciate the effort nor will he repay you.

I promised my dying mother that I would help look after him.......and because of my sister who has her hands full without this loser bleeding her dry.

No... he doesnt appreciate it. If I were to have a heart attack while working on his car his first thought would be to grab my wallet.

no sh*t.......

But like I said.... Its for my mom and my sister.

Originally Posted by corny

I worked on that car till 9 something saturday night and then yesterday afternoon from about 11am till 4pm.

I didnt worry about bleeding the front brakes. Hopefull that broked fitting will stay shut for a while till I can get the time and the gumption to possibly try and repair it.

My original mission was to replace the bad wheel cylinder on the drivers side that was blown out. Once into the wheel I discovered that the shoes had gone to metal and the drum needed replacing. I went ahead and decided to do both wheels. New drums, news shoes, new drums.

I got the bad side done and put back together fine.......and thats where I should have stopped.

I decided to go ahead and replace the wheel cylinder on the other side fiquring it might need it soon. Did this good wheel and had just an absolutely awlful time getting the brakes to sit right......I finally fiqured out sunday afternoon that the self aduster lever was getting caught on the adjuster or something and wouldnt let the brake shoes come in tight against the wheel cylinder.

I found this out after bleeding the brakes last night then test driving the car this morning...... the good side wheel cylinder popped out of one side. I put the old one back on...bled that brake and it leaked again..... One side of the piston kept pushing out.

Went and got a new wheel cylinder and as I was putting this one together for some reason I reached in and pressed on the self aduster lever and I hear a snap as the shoes pulled together closer.

Test drove the car one more time and I thought this new was leaking but it must have just been accumulated fluid on the tire and wheel cause I tore the wheel down once more and it was clean and dry.

Hopefully its fixed.

I hadnt done drum brakes in many years...so I didnt know exactly what I was doing. Those shoes not coming together should have been obvious to me but I kept thinking that the drum and then pushing them out with the adjuster would "seat" them properly.

This is one of my bum nephews cars and its not worth the parts I put on it this weekend. He destroys any car he gets his hands on. Beats dents into them, beat the interior to pieces....drives them into ground.... The front discs are grinding right now and its something I will have to do next weekend. Last time I did his front brakes he had driven the car to the point where one of the pads had come off and the piston was grinding into the rotor.

Bald tires too.....gonna have to replace them. He goes thru a couple of sets of tires a year.....no sh*t......

If they dont wear out he busts them.... his rims look like someone took a hammer and just beat dents into them where he must get high or something and run into curbs or something.

Why even bother?
sounds like he doesn`t appreciate the effort nor will he repay you.

For the front calipers just pull cap on master cylinder and get your c clamp and squeeze piston back in, leave pad in to make even contact on piston, if you ever need to take a piston out pull bleeder and use compressed air to blow it out, oh and don't point piston at your face lol. For the rear a decent brake spoon would save you some swearing. When I was 17 I was a state certified brake tech, after I found hvac I left that crap behind lol.

Does the the word "enable" ring a bell ? People that go out of their way for loser family members are not helping them one bit. I have a sister in law who is in her 40s and doesn't have her s&%#t together yet. Its everyones fault but her own apparently.


Fine. Go somewhere else with that pathetic attitude.

Yea, I always have a tendency to want to do too much myself. I've found there are videos on the internet now for just about every make and model of any part that you want to replace. A lot of the parts shops have these to encourage DIYers. A friend has a 2006 Ford Taurus that may need rear brakes shoes, so I found a video to walk me through it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRlmmK1ie1E

Oh, a positive from this experience......

I got two used brake drums now. Been wanting to build a brake drum forge but just have not had the time to go by a junkyard and get one.

These are small....9 inch..... but I can experiment with it and see if its going to work for me.

I worked on that car till 9 something saturday night and then yesterday afternoon from about 11am till 4pm.

I didnt worry about bleeding the front brakes. Hopefull that broked fitting will stay shut for a while till I can get the time and the gumption to possibly try and repair it.

My original mission was to replace the bad wheel cylinder on the drivers side that was blown out. Once into the wheel I discovered that the shoes had gone to metal and the drum needed replacing. I went ahead and decided to do both wheels. New drums, news shoes, new drums.

I got the bad side done and put back together fine.......and thats where I should have stopped.

I decided to go ahead and replace the wheel cylinder on the other side fiquring it might need it soon. Did this good wheel and had just an absolutely awlful time getting the brakes to sit right......I finally fiqured out sunday afternoon that the self aduster lever was getting caught on the adjuster or something and wouldnt let the brake shoes come in tight against the wheel cylinder.

I found this out after bleeding the brakes last night then test driving the car this morning...... the good side wheel cylinder popped out of one side. I put the old one back on...bled that brake and it leaked again..... One side of the piston kept pushing out.

Went and got a new wheel cylinder and as I was putting this one together for some reason I reached in and pressed on the self aduster lever and I hear a snap as the shoes pulled together closer.

Test drove the car one more time and I thought this new was leaking but it must have just been accumulated fluid on the tire and wheel cause I tore the wheel down once more and it was clean and dry.

Hopefully its fixed.

I hadnt done drum brakes in many years...so I didnt know exactly what I was doing. Those shoes not coming together should have been obvious to me but I kept thinking that the drum and then pushing them out with the adjuster would "seat" them properly.

This is one of my bum nephews cars and its not worth the parts I put on it this weekend. He destroys any car he gets his hands on. Beats dents into them, beat the interior to pieces....drives them into ground.... The front discs are grinding right now and its something I will have to do next weekend. Last time I did his front brakes he had driven the car to the point where one of the pads had come off and the piston was grinding into the rotor.

Bald tires too.....gonna have to replace them. He goes thru a couple of sets of tires a year.....no sh*t......

If they dont wear out he busts them.... his rims look like someone took a hammer and just beat dents into them where he must get high or something and run into curbs or something.

Did the breaks and rotated the tires for the first time on this Mitsubishi Montero Sport with aluminum wheels last weekend....

20 minutes for the breaks, 2 hours to the get the wheels off

Highly recommend never seize for aluminum wheels

"My sister calls last week wanting to borrow 50 bucks cause my bum nephews car is broke down. No brakes...fluid pouring out of the back drivers side brake.

Soooooooooo, why did you do the work? I'd have the Nephew doing the work while I stood over him. Limits my liabilty.

It sound like you don't have the right tools, for the rear drums I use a Caliper tool to set the shoes, most parts places will loan you the tool with the part purchase. A hand Vacuum/Pressure pump makes it easy to bleed, change the fluid. I never use the old hardware, spings stretch, loose their temper, so I get a hardware kit. A lot of part places sell loaded calipers, cheaper than what the parts cost individually. If you rebuild the right side you have to do the left side exactly the same.

I feel your Pain Brother. Wife has a 92 Yes thats right 92 Suzuki sidekick. I have done everything on it. This weekend was water pump timing belt. The truck only has 380,000KM LOL so this isnt it's first timming belt. She paid a shop to do it the last time it was done. Cause the truck is so old and thier is alot of suzuki dealers out of bussiness I scored the manual from the dealer on this truck it's a must have for foreign beaters., anyways get the truck back toghther 100% by the manual WON'T START I was freaking wanted to smash it with a bat. So it turns out the pro's at the last shop put it toghther wrong I had to play with the spark plug wires to get some crazy firing order cause I put the timming back to stock.
So anayways I feel for ya.
This is today you need the caliper?

i've worked on more than my share of old cars. old timer told me to 'tighten first then loosen' on stuck bolts/bleeders/etc. Counter-intuitive, I know. Amazingly, it works, and has saved me a lot of broken fittings. You don't tighten much, not even 1/8 turn, you can feel it move a hair. Then loosen. You are also allowed to take your O/A torch and run around the bleeder on the caliper itself. Don't go wild but you can def get some good heat on there. Have an air tip ready to cool it off after you break it free. Sometimes you have to do this 2-3 times, but it works and doesn't destroy the internal parts if U are careful. Old timer taught me this, too.
Having said all this stuck bleeders def can ruin your day

Yep.. I've had to replace a caliper due to a busted bleeder. While I can do the job myself and usually don't struggle with it, I only do it when I have no other choice (like when my auto mechs went to their home country for a wedding - father+son team)

Why would you have to bleed the front brakes?

I have a Mighty Vac for bleeding brakes. A good investment if you do your own auto repairs.

"On to the bleeding"You or the brakes?

been there done that

should've paid a shop to do it, eh? hahahaha

Brake Job From Hell

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....

My sister calls last week wanting to borrow 50 bucks cause my bum nephews car is broke down. No brakes...fluid pouring out of the back drivers side brake.

I had them tow it to our house and I paid the tow truck driver.

Got started on the brakes today.

Needed a new whell cylinder and the brakes were into the drum.

I went and got new wheel cylinders, drums and brakes for both sides. 100 smackers.......

Go back home and get the first set on......I had put part of the self adjuster on wrong and had to take everything back apart to turn it around so I could loosen the brakes up after seating them.

I have not even seen drum brakes in 15 years...... and they are a ***** with the springs and all.

Get the other side on and I had a bear of a time getting to the self adjuster from the back. even with the wheel off and the car jacked up there just isnt room for a 50 year old in poor health to get under there.

I finally got the brakes seated and got them to where they would spin.

On to bleeding.

Had to rejack the car so I could get to the bleeder ports on the back and it was so tight that I could barely do it.

Got one side ok and went to the other and quit bleeding while there was still some bubbles coming out but I fiqured Im going to have to go back around anyway and after I get them bled once I can take the car out of the driveway and pull it up on the curb to bleed again.


Went to the front wheel and put my wrench on the bleeder fitting......it was tight as hell......I gave a bit more force and snapped the bleeder fitting off.

Packed it in for the night till I go to advance in the morning and get a new caliper.

Im not even going to attempt to easy out the rest of the fitting. I can have a new caliper on in no time and hopefully some time tomorrow have that POS car out of my driveway.

A whole day wasted on those damn brakes.