I hate the parking brake and wheel stud installation. Blech.

[Jim Faulkner]

My son's '97 needed new shoes. Last weekend I replaced the front ones. Easy. When inspecting the rear I noted that some jack hole at a tire shop (the car was bought with new tires on it) cross threaded about three lugs on the driver side rear. One stud snapped off. It was safe enough to drive around town on four lugs, so I waited until this weekend (today) to put new studs on it. Man.

For starters, when I took the lugs off again, another stud broke. So with two down I knew I had no choice but to swap out the studs. Got five new ones, and new lug nuts to go with them. The setup on the rear is awful. I saw how some were able to put in new studs with the parking brake assembly in place, but I just could not do it. Fingers to thick to work that nonsense. The parking brake was dust anyway, and should be changed, so I figured fine, I'll just change that while I am at it.

Rotor was held on tight. Had to pound it with a rubber mallet a bit to pop it loose. By a bit I mean maybe 10 minutes or so.

Getting the damn parking brake apart was fun. Not. 21 years old, and it was cranky. After some busted knuckles I got the shoes off. That rear spring is impossible to access, so just had to flex it and pull it up and out. Then to the studs. Knocking out the two busted ones was easy enough, but I was wondering how the others were going to push out. Looks like there is just not enough room with that dust shield. So I tried to get it (dust shield) off. Yeah, right. That wasted an hour or so. But with the parking brake out of the way, I was able to pound out the other studs and get ready to put in the new ones. It took some swearing, but I was finally able to angle them just right if I rotated the hub to get the stud to the four o'clock position. Easier for me anyway.

Once I had the new studs in, I used the 1/2-20 nut with some washers trick to pull the new studs through. I sprayed the stud liberally with penetrating oil to make it easier, and took it slow and let the stud cool down a few times on each one (used my socket wrench, not a power tool). I did not want to risk flaring a thread, or causing some small issue with the stud, so took each slowly. For the last bit I used my 24" breaker bar to get the torque I needed. After a bit all studs were snug and error free.

So the parking brake. What a job. I did not have locking needle nose, so had to go get some after trying with regular needle nose for a bit. Putting together all the other parts was fine, sort of, but getting the front spring on just plain sucks. The design is just frustrating - the spring tip and latch loop just do not face each other well, making you have to pull and twist the thing to get the tip to get to the opening. And the spring is sooooo tight. More choice words, and many many attempts got it done.

6 hours working on the rear end of that thing. Two new sets of shoes in the rear, new studs on the driver side rear (where they were fouled), and new parking brake shoes on the rear driver. Some day soon I will attack the passenger side to get it new. But not now. He rarely used the parking brake, so not a big deal.

Nice deep sunburn neck and left side of face. Yay.

 

[MrQ]

Yup those are fun. I would have just pulled the whole axle shaft. It's actually faster. Just drain the rear diff, remove the cover, pop the axle shaft in a bit, pull the c-clip and out it comes. Also a great time to do rear wheel bearings.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto, any of that deep to axle work is a good time to R&R the axle bearings and seals.

I've had to replace two studs, one for each of two Fords about five years ago. I bought a stud installer for about $20, well worth it unless you'll only do one ever.

Buy a needle nose Vise-Grips set of pliers, those are a regular tool I have in my take with me tool box. I use those a lot.

 

[BKennedy]

When I swapped the disc brakes out a 1999 Explorer into my 1994, rebuilding and installing the parking brakes was about half of the time for the entire job. When I used to drive the Crown Victoria on a daily basis, it had the same parking brake assembly. The pedal was a push on, push off type and you could use it like a cutting brake to make spectacular U-turns. We got a statewide notification to knock it off because it was burning out the parking brakes and the tech were sick of replacing them.

 

[Jim Faulkner]

Ditto, any of that deep to axle work is a good time to R&R the axle bearings and seals.

I've had to replace two studs, one for each of two Fords about five years ago. I bought a stud installer for about $20, well worth it unless you'll only do one ever.

Buy a needle nose Vise-Grips set of pliers, those are a regular tool I have in my take with me tool box. I use those a lot.

I bought the vise-grip needle nose to get it done. Had regular vise pliers but not the needle. Only way I could see to get it done. One more tool to the big collection! I looked for a stud installer but none to be found. $1.52 worth of 1/2-20 nuts (bought two just in case) and three big thick washers did the trick just fine.

My current adventure is pulling out and swapping the engine in my daughter's '09 Camry. Yeah, she ran it without oil. Engine seized. I bought an engine yesterday, will have it in two weeks. I anticipate buying a tool or two before that is done.