Any of you Minuet owners done your own brakes?

[Van]

I've done plenty of brake jobs on my cars and trucks. Only two of those vehicles had drums. IIRC, it was just a matter of tapping the backside of the drums with a soft headed hammer on those vehicles and working it off over the lugnuts to get at the brakes.

Apparently it seems that isnt the way of it on the Argosy. It looks like the grease cap needs to be removed and something else i am missing. I worked at it for 45 mins this afternoon to no avail. Anyone have any hands on experience with the brakes on a minuet?


Here are some links to a couple pics...




Side view


Front view


Thanks for any info.

[Janets Husband]

I have to ask, does your brake drums have studs or bolts to hold the wheel on.

If you have the brake drum with bolts you will have to remove the drum by pulling it via the wheel bearings.

If you have studs to hold the wheels on, it should just pop off the studs. If it does not you may have a brake shoe prolem holding the drum to the axle.

[Janets Husband]

Sorry I did not see you had posted pictures before I posted .

I just went out and looked at my new axle, the drum and hub appear to be one piece. This looks like it will have to be pulled via the wheel bearing route.

[Van]

As far as i can tell they are studs. I could be wrong though. When i've done them in the past i have had to deal with pad holding the drum on tight. It doesnt seem to be that in this case. There is no budging at all. Usually in my epxerience, if a drum just slides off over the lugnuts you can at least get some wiggle out of the drum, even if it doesnt want to come off.

Not in this case.



*edit*


Ugg, just what i didnt want to mess with. Well, guess i get to inspect my bearings a bit closer then and find out if the PO was indeed telling me the truth when he said he replaced them 1000 miles ago.


thanks

[Pick]

This may help.

[Van]

Well, i got them done.

When i pulled the spindle nuts off to get the drum off and at the brakes, i didnt really pay much attention, but did notice that one side spun right off and the other was a bit stiff.

Well, after getting the new shoes back on and drums back on it was time to crank down the nuts.


Not so much it turns out.

Someone who had the drum off previously crossthreaded the nut on the door side of the trailer when they put it back on. I was getting a bit nervous thinking i was going to have to spring for a new axle or something.

Thankfully a relative with an extensive set of tools came to my rescue with a nut chaser(a tap and die type thing) that cleaned the spindle right up. Major headache averted.

As for the brakes, i was planning on just getting the old ones reshoed as i figured i would have a hard time finding a new set that worked. I ened up with a whole new set for cheaper than what a reshoeing would have cost.

One more project completed.

[katrix]

Yay completed project!

[funkill]

Yippie --- I went through some four-lettered-vocabulary working on my brakes earlier this week. I think I spent more time getting the cotter pin out of the spindle nut than completing the entire job. I would have freaked if I found the cross-thread problem. Kudos to you!

Laura

[Argo20]

Would any of you be willing to make a video for me of this process?

[perryg114]

You are better off getting new drums and backing plates with self adjusters. I messed with the old brakes on my trailer and they never were right. Magnet faces not flat on drum etc. Weak magnets. Uneven lockup characteristics. One wheel locks and others not doing anything etc. etc.





Perry