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Brake fluid leaked onto brake shoes. Yay!

BALTANAKT

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Berthoud, CO
So I changed the rear brakes for my Father last weekend.

- New shoes
- New hardware
- New drums

Put it all back together & tested. Fluid starts pouring out the drum. Brake cylinder seal gave out. Took everything back apart, put in new cylinders. There was a little fluid on the drum and shoe so I cleaned them up with some spirits. Put it all back together again. Drove fine for a couple days and started squealing like crazy when applying brakes. My guess is it is due to the fluid contamination.

So how can I salvage the shoes? I'm thinking this:

- Wipe down shoes with degreaser spirits
- Lightly sand shoes
- Wipe down shoes with degreaser spirits again
- Wipe down drum with degreaser spirits
- Put back together
- Cross fingers

Any thoughts? Are these things just ruined?
 
You need "Brake Clean".
 
Ok. We got the brake clean.

- Lightly sanded pads
- Brake cleaned pads
- Brake cleaned drums

Put it all back together and the noise is just horrendous.

- It's mostly at lower speeds
- Sort of a pulsing sound (drums out of shape?)

Ugh. Any ideas?
 
If I were in your shoes I would run a test using the old drums (clean them up first of course). It would not surprise me at all if the problem turns out to be the new drums and has nothing at all to do with your concern about brake fluid on the shoes.
 
If I were in your shoes I would run a test using the old drums (clean them up first of course). It would not surprise me at all if the problem turns out to be the new drums and has nothing at all to do with your concern about brake fluid on the shoes.

Unfortunately the old ones were totally destroyed. PO never changed the pads, major grooves :(
 
Unfortunately the old ones were totally destroyed. PO never changed the pads, major grooves :(

Have another rig you can borrow a set from? Just for a test run around the block?

Also, have you played around with manually adjusting these? Will the e-brake currently hold the vehicle?
 
Ok. We swapped the drums side to side and the passenger rear (the one that was making the noise) is still making noise. It’s more of a howl. We have tried adjusting it to no avail. Next up, different shoes...
 
Update

- Removed the AutoZone brake shoes
- Cleaned and regreased contact points
- Installed a new set of shoes from NAPA
- Adjusted everything

So far so good. Will report back in a few days.
 
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