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14 bolt drum brake tools

Jaryd

Jaryd

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Location
Hodges, SC
Im about to change out the shoes and wheel cylinders on my 2000 K3500 single wheel.

What break tools do I need to do this job easier and quicker.

I have done Shoes and wheel cylinders before but have never bought the right tools for the job so I always fought with the springs and everything else in there until it was apart or together. I don’t want to fight with it this time. I want to get in there and get it done without it taking all day.
 
convert to rear disk makes it easier and better. I would like to give a punch to the engineers that keep putting drums in cars and trucks post 1989.

Start soaking in your favorite penetrating oil now on the bolts and lines connected to the wheel cylinders.
drum spring tools are preference really. Many like the individual tools with a screw driver style handle. I use the “scissor” ones- Snapon 131A. I have a pair of cheapy ones also that if you look close I have bent and straighten the arms on a few times for odd angles. Also a pair of 4” vice grips to grab springs with on some rigs, but the snappy did 99% of my gmt400 ones. I wore out one pair and got that pair as replacements.

QUALITY line wrench to loosen brake line. Snapon, Mac. No other line wrench resistant to spreading and stripping like those two. Narrow shaft is snappy and wide shaft is mac- so person preference there.
I would use 1/4” imapct to remove the wheel cylinder Bolts so they with come out easy or break easy. Use 6 sided socket- NO SLIPPING!.

NEW bottle of brake fluid- moisture gets drawn in once opened so a couple year old bottle of fluid is half dead
 
I just bought 3 bottles of brake fluid so I can flush everything real good with my mighty vac.

Im installing the Raybestos wheel cylinders for a dually that Ferm suggested, rotors and Wagnor pads the WarWagon suggested.

Whats the best way to adjust the shoes once it’s back together. I’ve read several different ways to do it so I don’t know which one is best. Ive always adjusted them to where there is a tiny bit of drag when you spin the hub.
 
I actually just got done doing a set of drum brakes yesterday. I use drum brake pliers for removing the springs and putting the top 2 springs on, the screwdriver one for doing the springs on the anchor pins for the shoes, the duckbill pliers for the bottom spring, and small pliers to close the springs back up once they're in position.IMG_20200816_224740084.jpg
 
I usually use just what theferm shows. I install the auto adjuster device and the bottom spring then slip the assembled shoes into position, then, install the two anchor pins and springs, The rest is a breeze from there.
I too adjust the shoes unti there is drag heard, or felt, then after the test run, bring the unit back into the garage, juack up the hinders and see how they feel, if need be adjust them a little more and after that let the self adjusters take over. Just dont want them too tight and burnum up.
 
I’m going to get those tools tomorrow from NAPA or Advance Auto and hoping the parts come in the mail tomorrow to. If they do come in I’ll have plenty of time to replace everything so we can pull the boat to the lake Thursday evening after work. This is the last weekend before the kids go back to school so they want to spend it staying at the lake. Sounds good to me.
 
I've never even used anything special for brake tools, over four decades of just using the big-ass Channel Locks, a 12"x5/16" straight blade Craftsman screw driver and ⅜" drive shallow socket the outside diameter the same or slightly smaller than the shoe pivot pin spring retainers with a 3" extension in it for a handle. A small pocket clip straight blade screwdriver to reach in through the backing plate access hole to lift the adjuster arm off the rowel and a 4"x¼" Craftsman straight screwdriver to turn the rowel to adjust the shoes in or out as needed. Always worked for me. While I was doing the rear struts, sway bushings and endlinks on my daughter's Camry last spring, popped the drums off to check things out. Needed new shoes, they had 1-2mm of lining left. Went and got a new set, took less than 15 minutes a side to R&R the old for the new, including cleaning, wire brushing, and lubing everything before reassembling. All using standard hand tools.
 
Will L. said:
convert to rear disk makes it easier and better. I would like to give a punch to the engineers that keep putting drums in cars and trucks post 1989.

Start soaking in your favorite penetrating oil now on the bolts and lines connected to the wheel cylinders.
drum spring tools are preference really. Many like the individual tools with a screw driver style handle. I use the “scissor” ones- Snapon 131A. I have a pair of cheapy ones also that if you look close I have bent and straighten the arms on a few times for odd angles. Also a pair of 4” vice grips to grab springs with on some rigs, but the snappy did 99% of my gmt400 ones. I wore out one pair and got that pair as replacements.

QUALITY line wrench to loosen brake line. Snapon, Mac. No other line wrench resistant to spreading and stripping like those two. Narrow shaft is snappy and wide shaft is mac- so person preference there.
I would use 1/4” imapct to remove the wheel cylinder Bolts so they with come out easy or break easy. Use 6 sided socket- NO SLIPPING!.

NEW bottle of brake fluid- moisture gets drawn in once opened so a couple year old bottle of fluid is half dead
Click to expand...
I was surprised at what the spring tool costs these days. Mine is about 40 years old or older. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Snapon+131A&ia=web
 
For the anchor pin springs, most the time I just use a smalle pliers for pressing the spring and turning the retainer. Dont really need the that screw driver looking spring tool
The brake pliers though, they are a real time saver. I have shanged out BSs without that tool, using a side cutter and brute force, it works but it shore aint handy. LOLOLOL
 
I learned as a young pup- determine what you need and get it. Buy once cry once (already posted that twice today, haha).
How much money does it cost “getting by” with a not quite right tool when it slips, cuts you hand and severs a tendon? Even if not you when the make shift tool damages the item you’re working on and costs a hundred extra in parts.

Once I was on the job the cost was a no brainer. Get more chrome, make more money, get more chrome...

If your not going to do many rigs with them- craftsman or harbor freight. Just be careful
 
It's not that I'm cheap (I'm not) but the very first drum brake job I did on my own was when I was in High School, clandestinely using dad's brake tools (he was always telling me to stay out of his tool box since I was a toddler watching them build Sprint cars!) on my dd '68 Mercury Monterey 4-door land barge! A few years later while away in college I needed to do a rear brake job on my '72 Monte Carlo.

Living on my own off-campus while going to school and making $3.15/hr Minimum Wage working 15-20 hrs/week made the $35/axle, parts included, local tire shops were advertising for a brake job pretty much unaffordable, let alone buying a set of brake tools to do it myself. I had a basic set of tools that were mine I had taken with me when I moved - a set of combination wrenches, basic shallow socket set/ratchet/extension, pliers - needle nose, lineman, slip-joint, water pump and a set of various sizes/lengths of straight blade and Phillips screwdrivers.

In the greatest of American traditions, I improvised with what I had available to (successfully) get the job done. Since I don't wrench on vehicles for a living, and my improvised method/tools have always worked successfully and injury-free on the personal/family vehicles I've done every couple of three or four years, I've seen no need to buy a set of specialized brake tools for a once in a blue moon job.
 
Husker6.5 said:
It's not that I'm cheap (I'm not) but the very first drum brake job I did on my own was when I was in High School, clandestinely using dad's brake tools (he was always telling me to stay out of his tool box since I was a toddler watching them build Sprint cars!) on my dd '68 Mercury Monterey 4-door land barge! A few years later while away in college I needed to do a rear brake job on my '72 Monte Carlo.

Living on my own off-campus while going to school and making $3.15/hr Minimum Wage working 15-20 hrs/week made the $35/axle, parts included, local tire shops were advertising for a brake job pretty much unaffordable, let alone buying a set of brake tools to do it myself. I had a basic set of tools that were mine I had taken with me when I moved - a set of combination wrenches, basic shallow socket set/ratchet/extension, pliers - needle nose, lineman, slip-joint, water pump and a set of various sizes/lengths of straight blade and Phillips screwdrivers.

In the greatest of American traditions, I improvised with what I had available to (successfully) get the job done. Since I don't wrench on vehicles for a living, and my improvised method/tools have always worked successfully and injury-free on the personal/family vehicles I've done every couple of three or four years, I've seen no need to buy a set of specialized brake tools for a once in a blue moon job.
Click to expand...
That's what estate auctions are for. I have several tools from auctions. I even bought my own saw blades back at. An auction. I knew they were mine, because they had my name on them. And there was some butthead bidding against me. Never saw who it was.
 
Before he moved to to Denver in 1991, dad gave me his early 1960's Snap On top chest (sans tools) and kept the base drawer unit that went with it. Two summers ago, when my stepmom came back here for dad's internment and Memorial Service/Celebration of Life, she brought his old hip-roofed tool box from Signs Incorporated (his company he owned) with about 100 lbs of automotive tools I've never bothered to open up to see what's in it. She told me that the base unit hadn't been out in their garage for a couple of years (my guess is he sold it to fund some project), when I was there back in January 2016 it was there with a cheap, generic top chest sitting on it. Quite possible that he did sell the SnapOn bottom unit and replaced it with a cheaper cabinet, since he had peg board up on two walls of the garage and various tools/wrenches hanging all over. Shame, because he did say that some day I would eventually get that matching base unit. I'm going out to Denver over Labor Day Weekend to load up a bunch of stuff from his "office", mementos, family pictures, etc, I'll see if it's still there and if so, if I have room to load it and all the other stuff into the Camry
 
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