Rebuilding rear drum brakes

[tucker0104]

I am getting ready to rebuild my rear drum brakes for a 97 7.3L SRW. Anybody recommend a certain place to buy the rebuild kit? Anybody have a diagram of the drum brakes so I can look at it for reference? Thanks for the help in advance.

[BigFuel]

I buy my parts just from the local parts store. The rears aren't used very heavily compared to the fronts. If you are in good with the store also buy a spring kit. If you don't need it be sure that you can return it. Open both sides and the side that you are currently not working on will be the exact opposite of the one you are. Use anti-seize as a lubricant anywhere the shoe touches the backing plate. Sand the shoes and the drums before installation. Do not sand in the direction of the braking force (ie on the drum not in the circle of the contacting surface but in and out of the surface).

[terryknight]

dissemble one side and fix it leave the other side for reference in case you need to remember where something goes. they are not hard.

[JD3020]

Get all new springs/hardware, i think they were fairly cheap. Have the drums turned somewhere so they are in good shape. And don't get cheap shoes, i got a lower level of shoes at Napa and they ended up having to go through 3 different boxes of em to get me a decent set. Only reason i did that was because i had to get shoes to drive the truck, and at the time my axle seals were leaking so i was planning on ripping them out shortly anyways. 13k miles later the leak is non-existent and i'm still running the cheaper shoes.

Also, drum brakes are pretty much universal all across the board so just google write-ups/how-to's for drum brake re-builds, and it will pretty much crossover to the OBS brakes.

[tucker0104]

The problem with looking at the other side while working on one is that I am already missing the auto-adjusting compnents. I was just wondering if there was a drawing somewhere out there so I know what to do with th auto adjusting sping and wire.

[tucker0104]

Has anyone bought the TSM disc brake conversion. I would be getting it for better parking brake instead of better overall braking. My drum brakes don't hold very well on the steep boat ramp with my boat on the trailer.