I am thinking of purchasing a 1986 Firebird, but the rear brakes are cracked. How difficult is it to replace the rear drum brakes? Is there a good website to order brakes from or could I go to a junkyard and find some brakes?

Thank you.

 

Not a hard project at all! Buy these parts new at your favorite auto parts store. They can supply you with everything you need. Since your in there anyway, dont scrimp. Purchase new pins, springs, brake cylinders, shoes, etc. and maybe one of those handy brake tools or two.

Good luck

PS also a good time to pick up a Haynes repair manual

 

Get yourself a repair manual, like Haynes or Chilton's, and it will steer you in the right direction.

Can't tell if, by cracked, you mean pads (just buy new ones) or the drums themselves (again, buy new ones).

Even if just the pads need replacing, you'll probably want to get the drums turned too.

 

Thanks for the quick replies.
I haven't taken a good look at the underside of the car yet, I was just told that the rear brakes were cracked. I'm also wondering if I have to put the car on jacks to replace the brakes?

 

Yes. You'll hafta pull the wheels to get to the brakes.

 

haynes only gives you a picture. In the middle of doing my 84's rears and having a HELL of a time. spent 2 hours and damn those springs are strong.

Can't get the new shoes on because the springs are so tight. New shoes hardware kit and drums. Around 100$

anyway, have 1 shoe on so half done with one side. Any special tools needed, i'll be reading my techmanual and see if that helps. if it does i'll post instructions on the forum here, in whatever appropriate area.

Edit: figured it out, want to make it easy? i'm guessing use the tools GM says are required. brake spring pliers. The hell if i know which ones, but here is a link. http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keyw...&index=blended

The service manual says j-8049 and j-8057, those are numbers from 1987 and may have changed. a dealership would be helpful as to looking up the tools, price... dealers suck. I'm going to my local auto place, see what they got. meanwhile she'll still be on jackstands.

 

FYI: Drum brakes have SHOES and disk brakes have PADS. At least that's what everybody calls them around here.

 

yeah. Having the pliers would have made the job a lot easier. after doing the work you need to adjust them. the directions are in my book but the scanner is down so i wont have an image up for a while.

Edit: also i refer to tires as shoes. since it makes more sense...