The rear brakes on my V reg Polo recieved an advisory "would benefit from a service"). Made a start on them today, but found that they are different to the ones in the Haynes manual, in that having removed the drum, the flange on the hub is preventing removal of the brake shoes.

• Does the hub have to be removed to change the shoes?
• What size socket do I need?  - nut is marked 22H
• Should I replace the hub nuts?
• What is the hub nut torque?

 

Many thanks.

 

 

You do not need to undo that big nut.

Removing – Remove brake drum → Chapter. – Remove spring plate.  – Unhook lower return spring. – Remove brake shoes. – Unhook handbrake cable. – Clamp brake shoes in vice.

– Remove spring  for wedge – Remove upper return spring

Hi Nige,

 

Thanks for the reply. Which bit is the spring plate you are refering to? I got the lower return spring off OK, but spent 30 mins trying to wriggle the bits out to no avail

With these removed you can then lever the shoes out of the bottom plate then from the grooves in the pistons and disconnect the handbrake cable  

Thanks Nige,

 

I had got those off, but was struggling to get the handbrake cable disconnected. Is there a knack to it?

Once that is done, does it all come out as one bit, with the upper springs and plate fitting in the gap between the hub flange and the piston?

 

Cheers

My old Ibiza had the same setup and I remember it was a PITA,  fully slacken off the handbrake cable adjusters to give you some slack to play with, then it's just a wrestling match to get the cable off the operating lever, then the pair of shoes should lift out as a unit with the spreader plate & springs, easiest to dismantle that by holding the shoes in a vice to remove the springs & spreader plate, then build the new shoes with the spreader plate/springs in the vice and then refit to car.

Some progress made, got the old shoes off last night, you were right in that the hard bit was getting the cable off the lever. Once that was done they came out OK. Rebuilt with new shoes this evening, ready to go back on - if the rain ever stops !!!

All done now, thanks for the help .