How To Replace The Rear Brake Shoes On My 1999 Corolla Ve?
by Bad_dude, January 9, 2011
Bad_dude
This is my first time doing this and I do have the Haynes manual but the black and white pictures and instructions are kind of confusing. Thus I am here to ask for some pointers. I get confuse when it comes to the adjuster star wheel and adjustment. Some sites say to turn the star wheel all the way in and adjust it to a drag after all parts are installed. Other sites say nothing about turn the star wheel all the way in and just install it then adjust it after all parts are installed. So I am asking some of you experts and frequent brake shoes changers to give a step by step to make my first job easier and more importantly safe to brake afterward.
Thanks,
The rear brakes will self-adjust to get the shoes to the right distance away from the drum, but I prefer to adjust them as close as possible before that to minimize the "adjustment" time. Even though the rear brakes only do a fraction of the braking, if you don't adjust them by hand, you'll have some funky braking until they get adjusted. Also, if the brakes are too far off, they might not be able to adjust at all.
TIPS: If you can, take a photo of the brakes before you pull anything apart, and only work on one side at a time, just in case. That way you can use the other side as a reference, just mirror the parts. Note the length and wide of the friction shoes and compare them to the new ones. There is a front (leading) and rear (trailing) shoe, if you put them in backwards, the rear brakes will constantly lock up on you. The new shoes also have a pathetic amount of friction material, probably not much different from the old ones - so you can "count" the number of turns of the star wheel that you make to close them up, put the new shoes in, turn it that same number of turns - see if the drum will fit. Back off a couple of turns until they just "grab and drag" on the drum.
EDIT: They make special brake drum tools to work on this, but I've found that standard screwdrivers and pliers worked well enough for me when I did them. Also, don't forget to not use the parking brake. The very first time I worked on brake drums, I forgot that I set the parking brake. Ended up pulling the shoes off with the drums in the process of yanking the "stuck" drum off. It was a mess - bent some hardware, ripped the boots on the wheel cylinder, etc. Haven't forget since.
