Hi all, I've been away from this forum for a bit, but I have a real puzzler with my 2007 Saturn Ion 2. I Recently replaced the rear drum brakes: drums, hardware, and shoes. This is the first time I've done any work on drum brakes. I got everything together without too much trouble, but I'm sure I got something wrong. When I do a slow test drive, without braking, I can hear some brushing on the rear brakes, mostly the driver's side. The brushing gets worse at some point in the test drive and turns to squealing. I stop the car and drive it very slowly back, still hearing the brushing, but I can get it back in the driveway without any obvious issues. Here's the current state of the rear brakes:


Some slight wear, looks okay to me.

Is there anything wrong here? the emergency brake isn't adjusted yet can I do this in two stages, first fixing the regular brakes and then adjusting the emergency brake?

Everything looks okay to me, but I don't really know what to look for

Again, everything looks fine, but I wouldn't really know what to look for if it were not obvious.

Lower front shoe. Is this a problem?

My plan right now is to back off the self adjuster a couple of turns at at time until the drum spins freely with no shoe-brushing at all. I think if it take it bit by bit I can get the shoes to the right spot to work. My main concern, though, is that I may have already damaged or worn my shoes such that I will need new ones? What do you guys think?

Thanks, in advance,

gibby

 

When you say you got things together "without too much trouble", I congratulate you. I did this job on my 2004 Ion last fall, and fortunately I bought the special tool for the single hold down spring before I began. Without it, I suspect I would have had a lot of trouble. Anyway, in the pictures, it looks like the pistons in the wheel cylinder are not fully retracted. The tabs on the upper part of the brake shoes should be almost fully into the rubber cup on the wheel cylinder. It's possible that the inside of the wheel cylinder is 'gunked' up, preventing the pistons from retracting fully. If this is the case, it would require replacing the wheel cylinders or removing the cups and pistons and honing out the cylinder with a hone designed for wheel cylinders. For initial adjustment of the brakes, I used a caliper tool -- you adjust the tool to the inside diameter of the brake drum, then adjust the shoes so the tool just touches the outside edges of the shoes.
As far as the scuff on the bottom of the brake shoe that you pictured, that is just the shoe being corrected to perfect roundness, since it is only occurring on the one corner of the shoe.

 

One other item to check -- I can't tell from the pictures, but is your adjuster fully screwed in? It may not have to be fully in, but it for sure should be shorter than it was when you removed the old shoes. It looks like you have new hardware, so if you tried to match the new adjuster to the older one, it may be too long.

 

I agree with oldmarine. I THINK (since I have never worked on an Ion) that under the cups of your wheel cylinder, the pins are slotted. The upper portion of your brake shoes should fit into the slots vertically. If that's lined up properly, the self adjuster should have just enough tension to be snug. In the past, with properly installed and lubricated self adjusters, I've been able to get the shoes to get snug on the drum by driving in reverse and hitting the brake pedal hard several times in a row. 10 to 15 mph or so is plenty fast enough.

 

I learned how to do drums on my first ion. I applaud you.
that was also the last time I ever touched drums. Lmao

My latest ion needed drums amd rear beam bushings so I 5 lug rear disc swapped instead. Lmao