Removing brake drum

[newtome]

Hi to all,

Haven't had much time to come here or work on my R4 (real work, pays the rent), Got a few days off and started to have some fun fixing my baby. Starting with my brakes, changed the front disc pads (going to need new disc soon) no problem, went to take the back drums off, use a little bit of elbow grease but they won't budge. I just need to know if there is some thing special about taking them off or do I just need to use alittle brute force and ignorance.

Thanks
Carl

 

[malcolm]

The back drums should be held on by a big nut with a split pin that are hidden under the cap in the centre of the hub. The cap comes off with a few taps of a hammer. Once you've removed those, the thick washer and the bearing it should be possible to wiggle the drum off. On a GTL you'd have to make sure the handbrake is off.

Often there is rust on the edge of the drum that gets stuck on the brake shoes. There isn't a great deal you can do about this apart from tapping the drum with a soft faced hammer and wiggling some more. Normally they come off in the end.

Make sure you have somewhere clean to put the bearing.

 

[Steve Hennessey]

................and don't forget to wear a mask over your mouth and nose because all that tapping will dislodge lots of nasty dust that may or may not contain asbestos!!!!!!!!!

Steve

 

[newtome]

Thanks Clementine and Saftey Steve...

Didn't want to mess anything up, the cap looks like it went thru the war already. Noted that the metal housing behind the drum looks twisted, the top is closer to the drum than the bottom. Is this normal ??????

Thanks again for being here to help

Carl

P.S. tried to add a picture but it won't let me???????

 

[angel]

The lower part of the brake backplates on R4s have an aperture so that water can drain easily. So you may be looking this and think that is should have the same clearance at the top, too (it shouldn't). Renault workshop manuals say that a hub puller is needed to remove the drum after you unscrew the hub nut. In most cases the drum will come off easily with the hands, but if you are unlucky and the rear brakes have been opened few times, the bearings may be tight on the stub axle and there is no other solution than a hub puller. But try this first: Unscrew and remove the hub nut and the large washer, then put the wheel back on, and pull on this, it should give you some more leverage.

 

[newtome]

Got the first one off, have to go get some bearing grease to repack before I put it back together. Just alittle bit of pain taking off the center springs attached to the back plate. Besides that pretty simple.

And yes Saftey Steve there was an unbelieveable :shock: amount of brake dust, I'd advised everyone to wear a mask, better safe now than sorry later..

Angel great tip :wink: about putting the tire back on, don't think I'd gotten it off without that extra leverage.

Clementine, when I took the large nut off holding the brake drum it was only finger tight, do I put it back finger tight :? ???????

Also about the back plate, the aperture so that water can drain is easy to see, but it's not that, from the top down to the aperture it increase about 1cm............


Thanks for all the help
Carl

P.S. About adding a picture album, my files are jpeg, do I have to change these to something else. It won't let me upload them.

 

[malcolm]

Clementine, when I took the large nut off holding the brake drum it was only finger tight, do I put it back finger tight

According to the Haynes manual - tighten the nut to 34Nm while turning the wheel. Undo the nut 1/6 turn. Pull the wheel outwards to take up the play, then gently tighten the nut until the end float is 0.01 to 0.05mm. It suggests that if you don't have anything to measure end float then tighten until there is just a tiny amount of movement in the bearing, but not so far that there is no movement.

P.S. About adding a picture album, my files are jpeg, do I have to change these to something else. It won't let me upload them.

The gallery software is horrible. Try removing all spaces in the file name and making sure that the names contain only letters, numbers, dashes or underscores. There is a file size limit of 2Mb. jpeg files should be OK unless the software has gome completely mad. It'll be good to see your photos.

 

[angel]

Better solution to tighten rear hub nut: First tighten it to the torque specified, at the same time turning the drum (important!). Then back it off and tighten it again just beyond "finger tight".Take a large screwdriver and insert it in the small space between the hub and the "D-washer" and try to move the washer. It will move easily. The correct preload will be achieved when the washer can be moved but with slight resistance. So try to move it, tighten a fraction and try to move it again. Note that if the washer feels tight you should loosen the nut slightly then tighten it again very little. I hope I was clear, this is how I have adjusted rear hubs on many R4s for years and it works without hassling with dial gauges etc.Good luck!