take the drum off, a few good wacks with a hammer will probably knock it off, if not thread a bolt in the 2 little holes and it'll push the drum off. examine the shoes.

if they look like these,they need to be replaced.




pics arnt that great but if u look closely, u'll notice the pad is unevenly worn. one part might be thicker than another or it might be very thin towards the middle and thicker towards the ends. this means ur drums arnt surfaced properly and needs to be replaced andalso obviously the shoes will need to be too.

ill get a couple more better pics of the shoes tomorrow now that their off the car.

as far as replacing them urself, its a pain in the a$$...esp if u decide to leave the hub on and work around it. u can see in the pics there are some springs and clips and random looking junk. all of that stuff, pain in the a$$. damn springs are strong as sh*T. its very frustratingwhen u have the piece assembled and then it springs apart time after time when trying to hook the brake cable and place the assembly on the car[:@]

 

yeah, sometimes i think those freaking springs are made out of forged steel or titanium or something.

 

If you didnt put the thin and thick on the pictures, I wouldnt of even noticed. DIY

 

ya its hard to tell in the pics but in person its very noticable. i had one of the mechanics at my work check them out for me and we both noticed immediately after taking the drums off.

old driver side shoes


old passenger side

new shoes


new drums


after a couple times of adjusting, braking feels alot better. stiffer brake pedal,better initial bite, andstopping distance seems to have decreased. im glad i did it,who needs rear rotors[8D]

 

civicexracer:

Hey, i see you just did your rear breakes and made the mention of "who bneeds rear rotors".

I just signed up but one of the things i notice about my car is the breaks are lacking so i wa thinking of adding rotors in the rear.

Did you just replace with like stock pads or are there some sortof upgrade drum pads (If that even makes any sense).

I have not done a break job up front as of yet and will do so soon and prob use some better pads and such but was thinking about the rears.

 

The single best/cheapest mod you can do to help your brakes are stainless steal hard brake lines. They are cheap, easy to put on, and they all but eliminate brake fade.

 

Yeah i kinda forgot about that as an easy way to get the best out of what you got.

So i guess there arent any like upgrade brake pads shoes for drum brakes huh..

I know there are plenty of better pads to use up front like EBC green s and such.

I know i have alot of home work to do so i wont ask to many more question here and take this thread off into OT land lol.

 

a rear disc swap is not that hard though but in all reality unless you are doing alot of track racing or spirited mountain road drives it is over kill.

 

Yeah im def not going to be running around the auto x tracks or mountains but im used to all disk breaks on cars and my current setup just feels soft.

Like i have to press on the peddle pretty hard to slow down fast from good speeds (60+). Im pretty sure i need a normal break job but i like to add better parts when thing needs to be replaced and just wanted to know who i shodl lok into.

It seems that i should prob get SS braided lines all around
New better pads up front
Normal brake job rear drums

Does that seem correct to you?

Any recomendations on pads for the front set?

 

just get some sort of ceramic pads and do a tune up on your system. I was putting down roughly double the power/tq in my 98 sedan and just upgraded the lines and pads. Used oem replacementbrembo blanks and it was still plent for the power I was making.