Rear Drum Brake overhaul

93 ho, auto, chry 8.25 rear, stock gearing, new rear shoes and drums, running syn dot 4 brake fluid, recently started loosing a little brake fluid on the pass side piston, haven't checked the driver side but I want to overhaul both if I'm doing it. Upgrading to rear d44 in the future but this will have to be fixed for now. Can someone point me in the direction for a thread or site on a overhaul kit and directions. I've seen it before somewhere and I searched but can't locate it.

The kits are easy. But do yourself a favor and just buy the wheel cylinders. Do not bother to rebuild the old ones. Wheel cylinders are cheap and the kits are not much less then the w/c themselves.

magimerlin said:

The kits are easy. But do yourself a favor and just buy the wheel cylinders. Do not bother to rebuild the old ones. Wheel cylinders are cheap and the kits are not much less then the w/c themselves.

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Agreed get the cylinders.

Do you not have a manual? In the most basic Chilton, or Haynes it will have a diagram of how it all goes together. Its really straight-foward.

If you dont have a manual, then just take the drum off and take a picture of each side. Print out the picture's and have it near-by for re-assembly. (try not to mix them up)

When i remove parts from the drum, i lay them on the ground in "my own little order" that helps me remember where things go and on which side. There isnt really a method for my madness, but you should be able to come up with your own way of doing it to your satisfaction.
Really the only difference between what your going to do compared to just replacing the shoes is that you are removing the cylinder. IIIRC two bolts hold it in, and it just comes out (remove the brake line before you un-bolt it of course). Installation is reverse of removal. ALWAYS bleed brakes after any and all brake work.

I disagree. I usually buy the kits. They are about $3 each compared to about $14 each for the whole cylinder. You also need a hone that attaches to a drill to clean out the bore. Then it takes about one minute to put them together. Keep the hone for next time and it will only cost you 25% of what you would pay if you just bought the whole assembled cylinder.....and you might learn a little bit about your Jeep in the process.

Remember to only do one side at a time, so if you get lost you can look at the other side.

So we agree that the likely suspect for the leaking fluid is the w/c? Is this common? Yes I have a manual, should have checked it first, as well as GoJeeps site. Okay I'll price a coulple of new w/c's. Hopefully this will be it for a while..oh by the way when I did the rears six months ago I freed up and put anti-sieze on the adjusters but they are siezed up, guess I'll get a couple of those ordered too. Thanks guys. Do you all like the syn fluid idea? Has been good for me.

dot 4 is rated at a higher tep than dot 3... if you have oversized tires or haul/tow a lot it's supposed to make a differece. for a lock stock rig like mine, it doesn't make a difference.

do yourself a favor and change the rear shoes again. They will absorb the brake fluid from the leak and it will eat away the bonding agent in the friction material. I'm sure someone will tell you to "just spray it off with brake clean and reuse them" but if you ever need the full strength of your brakes, you don't want the friction material to crumble or crack under load!

tkjeeper said:

So we agree that the likely suspect for the leaking fluid is the w/c? Is this common? Yes I have a manual, should have checked it first, as well as GoJeeps site. Okay I'll price a coulple of new w/c's. Hopefully this will be it for a while..oh by the way when I did the rears six months ago I freed up and put anti-sieze on the adjusters but they are siezed up, guess I'll get a couple of those ordered too. Thanks guys. Do you all like the syn fluid idea? Has been good for me.

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I havent heard of w/c problems with the Cherokee, but its possible that most just dont talk about it. Its a pretty common problem with drum brakes period.
The syn is fine, just make sure you didnt / dont mix it with something else. If you did, just make sure that after the w/c / brake work, you bleed the rest of the old brake fluid out really well.