Drivers rear wheel cylinder

VMK

MEMBER
1993 FORD TAURUS
175,000 MILES

1993 Taurus - drivers rear wheel cylinder - front piston is popping out of the cylinder housing!

This is my daughters car and I did the front and rear brakes about 15K ago with no problems until this morning. Luckily this happened in front of our home as she was dropping off the grandson.

I removed the drivers drum and found the self adjuster had fallen off and it was considerably damaged. Figured the self adjusted froze. With that said I replaced the rear brakes again, this time with both sides receiving new shoes, new hardware and new self adjusters. I also replaced the drivers rear wheel cylinder.

While test driving the car it happens again! So I remove the drum, purchase and install another new wheel cylinder and took the extra step of replacing the drivers drum. Yep. Did it again!

So I am at a loss - this is not my first rodeo with drum brakes but I am stumped as to how this could even happen given the clearances within the drum. Any ideas or advisements will be appreciated as I am going to have to reopen this can of worms tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

You don't have to keep on buying new wheel cylinders. Just put the spring and lip seal back in followed by the piston and dust boot, then gravity-bleed it again.

Check that the shoes aren't upside-down. Set the shoes inside the drum to be sure you have the right ones. There's 9", 10", and 11 1/2" drums and shoes. If you have the wrong diameter you should also have a low brake pedal.