so I have a 97 with about 140,000 miles on it. I have had it for a goin on 4 yrs. and have never changed or checked the back brakes. i put new rotors and pads on the front and was figurin on doin the rear drums. the problem is i have never done a drum brake change. is it rough? i have a haynes manual and it looked like alot, with all the springs and crap. can someone let me know if it seems like something a first timer(on drum brakes) could do without switchin stuff around or messin it up. i can do discs easy, and im fairly good mechanically speaking( just changed the alternator, starter, egr, iac, blah blah within the last yr or so, so i have an idea what im doin on my truck)any help here is much appreciated. also i added in on a thread the other day about my pedal traveling further after doin the front brakes, could that be because the backs are shot? because when i compressed the caliper some fluid came outta the master cyl. reservoir but when i closed everything up and seated the brakes i test drove it. when i came back it didnt need any extra fluid eventhough i lost some earlier. thanks again

 

give it a shot it might take you a while the first time but its doable and deafinatly alot easier with the right tools. just remember to leave one side together so you have something to go by when putting everything back together. buy new hardware too its cheap insurance(springs,adjusters)you can buy them in kits. also if you get the drums off and see any oil theres no sence in putting new shoes on because you got a bad axle seal and it will wreck the new shoes

 

adam...thanks for the info, i think i am gonna give it a shot this weekend.

 

well i checked out my rear brakes today and i have a decent amount of meat left on the shoe. so i turned out the adjustment and they are workin just fine. i will probably need to replace them next spring. and the drums still looked good i didnt see any cracks or pits or anything bad. thanks for the advice again adam

 

If you are going that long without needing new back brakes, try bleeding them and making sure your adjusters are working. My back brakes were lasting forever, which didnt concern me for awhile, since it is normal for the fronts to wear quicker. Then, for grins and giggles, since I had the axle apart anyway, I cleaned the adjuster, and bled the rears, and WOAH, more braking power! I was using almost all fronts for about 100K and didnt even realize it.

 

akheloce...thanks for the info. I did check and clean up the adjusters and adjusted my shoes out. There was a nice difference in braking power as you have said. Thanks agian. I will still need new shoes probably this summer coming but atleast i got a bit of time.