Can't ever look at drum brakes without remembering the little diddy my daddy taught me about shoe placement, " Johnny want's a haircut just like mine, short in front and long behind "!

Five minutes for Tony, an hour for a knucklehead like me.

I've been doing drum brakes exactly like that for 40 years. Right on Tony !!

I was trying to install new shoes on my ‘69 Coronet using the brake tool Uncle Tony spoke of. After an hour and a half of frustration I asked my dad for help. Using a screw driver and pliers he got it done in 5 minutes! Thank you for the memory!

us older guys generally dont have a huge problem with drum brakes.i suppose its because we have done so many over the years.just dont let them get hot & they still work well.they cant be too bad if the majority of big trucks on the road still have drum brakes from the factory to stop 80k pounds.but yes disc's are much simpler to install & maintain.perhaps its just what you get used to working on.wes is a good guy.i love his channel as much as UTG.

The problem most people think they have with drum brakes is that they dont work well, but the real problem is they dont maintain them properly. A drum brake in good working order will work great.

@6:54 when that screwdriver spring trick worked it blew my mind!!! That spring would have bounced off and hit me in the nuts!

Yeah, I hear the " those drum brakes are so hard to do blah blah" often but as Tony says they are no trouble really. When I was in high school in 80s we had a '61 and a '64 Thunderbird as well as a "64 Dart GT hardtop with the 273. We drove them all the time. All had drum brakes and like Tony said they all stopped just fine and I was totally confident in them. You did have to make sure the brakes dried out if you ran through some deep water but that was something I learned back when I was a small kid from my parents.

I use those tools Tony was talking about. They are so easy to use and do not slip. I recommend everyone use them. Screw drivers and vise grips will get the novice hurt.

As someone who grew up as a teenager in the 70's driving late 50's and early 60's Buicks with those great Aluminum front drums I still look back on them and know how great they worked!

One of the major problems with old drum brakes is corrosion and extreme wear of the backing plate shoe pads. Tony pointed out white grease for them. What's bad is when those pads get grooves worn in them, the shoes hang up in the grooves. This causes uneven initial application, pulling left and right when you first apply the brake pedal. Good used backing plates can be very hard to find, new ones even less available. I end up rewelding the pads and resurfacing them, lots of extra work.

I worked for a front-end shop in the Bronx for years in the 80 and 90 did many drum brakes. They are very easy once you get the hang of them. I used the brake tools, not the plier type more like a bent screwdriver that the tip is designed to grip the peg .

I always use brake tools. They are worth their weight in gold. If you’re just beginning, do one at a time. If you forget how it came apart you can use the others as a pattern.

Perfect timing I have to replace some leaking rear wheel cylinders on my '66 F100. Thanks again for the "how-to" vid.

I was a tire tech and apprentice mechanic at a Goodyear tire store in the 70's, and complete drum brake job included two things Tony didn't mention: turning the drum, and arc grinding the shoes. Drums need to have a smooth surface for best contact with the shoes, so the first thing that had to be done was to evaluate the drums for wear, grooves, out of round, etc., and put the drum on a brake drum lathe and machine the contact area of the drum back to good condition ( if there was enough metal left to cut it to spec). After cutting, the drum inside diameter was measured, and the shoes were put into the another work station on the drum lathe, and the arc of the shoe was ground to a matching diameter to fit the drum inside diameter. This insured that the full length of the friction material on the shoe made contact with the drum for best performance. Save an old self adjuster cable, it's are a great tool for use in changing sealed beam headlights. They often have a spring loaded trim ring to hold the headlight in the mount, and the spring can be difficult to reach to release. The hook on the end of the cable snakes into a tight spot, grab the spring, pull out with pliers, and the sealed beam is free to replace. And yes, drum brakes were prone to being flooded with water and rendered ineffective. Disc brakes solved hat problem.

Remember, put the star adjuster the right direction, you can put it backwards where you can't reach the adjustment thru the slot. With the brake adjuster tool, "down is out", or I as I always think, "down and out" to tighten the brakes. Up with the adjuster tool to loosen. Tighten the brakes till you can't turn the tire by hand, and back off the brakes (up with the tool) 10 to 12 strokes. Straight from the text of the Bendix and GM books. Automotive Restoration of Lubbock. Thanks Tony!

I had forgotten how easy it was on my 67 chevy pickup, THANK YOU.

LOL Saw the watch wes work video and had to retort. As a young guy, I love hearing tips like these. Thank you

Love the mechanical teaching of understanding the difference with brake systems, thx buddy

We redid all four of my drums almost ten years ago and they've really aged well. Worn evenly. Only been through one wheel cylinder. My brakes don't self adjust but I have a really good Bonney adjustment tool than makes it easy enough.

Done a few the hard way then thought to myself gotta be an easier way. Assemble the shoes first then set it on the hub, nice. I also used a racthet strap to hold shoes together while placing springs. Takes more time but less spring tention. Im a hobbyist so not necessarily in a hurry. Great video ty.

In my experience with drum brakes only tear down ONE SIDE at a time that way if you forget how to put it together go look at other side.

good tips. if someone switched a car from drums to disk and didn't see an improvement they did something wrong or got a poorly designed kit. You also didn't mention wet weather performance. I remember having to ride the brakes to dry them out at times when you ran through water.

Just bought an original 65 malibu. On the way home from buying it, pedal worked great. Then drove it to the gas station with the kids to fill it up and bam. No pedal.

2 shoes at a time. Darn that’s a good, no, great idea!!! Thanks Tony!🇺🇸

Big Buick drum brakes were among the best.

I agree Tony! Screw driver method works slick. No special tools needed!

I'm having flashbacks to trying to replace the rear brakes on my Caravan. 10 hours. 10 EFFING HOURS! That did include a few breaks to walk away and calm down so I didn't burn it to the ground. This also included replacing a few bits that were corroded and not in the mood to move.

Disc brakes are superior...PERIOD. Although I don't mind drums on the rear, I insist on disc up front.

I'll never forget when I was showing my buddy how to rebuild his drum brakes after his wheel cylinder boot popped out while going down the road. I pulled the drum off and all the parts pretty well hit the ground, the look on his face was priceless 😂 people are pretty intimidated by the simplest things

Dam!!!!! I have never been that lucky putting them together.

It's not more pressure for disk brakes. They need more volume. So a slightly larger bore master cylinder is needed after a disk conversion. I learned the big advantage to disk brakes after driving my '68 f100 through a deep puddle. I had to ride the brakes for 3/4ths of mile before I couldn't have prayer when stopping. Disk breaks just wipe the water right off, and don't get soaked.

Damn! Thank you!!!! I've fought with those things for ever... Thank You!!!

Several times over the years I've worked on classic vehicles with rear drums that just had the brakes done by someone else but still had a soft pedal and low stopping power. When I go to check adjustment, I find the parking brake cable adjusted way up too tight, and the shoe adjusters turned way down. If you un-adjust the parking brake cable FIRST, make sure the cables are slack and the levers in the drums are fully released (usually stuck and have to be pried back) then adjust the shoes BEFORE re-adjusting parking brake cable. Re-doing these adjustments when they're out of whack always seems to bring the pedal back up to the top of its travel, firm, with more stopping power.. Just thought I'd throw out a tip... Another great video Tony!!!!!

YES! Thanks U.T. I love my old drum brakes. Cheers!

Awesome teaching video!!I'm a mobile mechanic (old school) and actually am doing rear brakes on 2002e150econoline this morning,this video will make my day so much easier!! Many thanks uncle tony!!

Thankyou Uncle Tony, always good to go back to basics for us guys that do that too often and the younger kids who are interested in doing it the right way.👍

"instead of trying to assemble it on the car..." 🤦🏻‍♂ Thanks, Tony! That is, in a nutshell, what I needed to know.

Uncle T is killin' it with these videos...

Been in the game for 22 years now, I totally get the nostalgia for drum brakes on a classic car, making it period correct and all but the advantages of disk brakes outweigh any disadvantages they may have. Disk brakes are first and foremost far easier to work on, dissipate heat better, work better in the rain, and work better if you road race a vehicle. Drum brakes will give you one or two good stops, but after that you better hope you don’t get stuck in traffic, your brake pedal will turn to mush.

I have those "special" tools you talked about and love them over the alternative!!! The anchor pin tool is magnetic to hold the quarter turn cap, and has a screw driver handle. The pliers handle has a concaved end the captures the stud so it cant slip off, and the other handle that has the weird cup thing fits over the stud and the little ear slides under the springs for removal! Very smart designs

The other critical step for inexperienced brake repairers, is to pull both wheels and drums, but leave one side assembled, so you can easily reference it, to see how to put the other side back together.

I'd love to see an A-B comparison of the same weight car from the same era, one with discs, the other with drums and see what the stopping distance from 30mph, 50mph and 60mph are and compare them.

I like the simplicity and the oldschoolnotsupermodernandboring-thinking. Thanx U T

I mostly do Ford and I find the brake tool they make really helps with removal of the springs

Safety first....Always wear your safety glasses. Great tips!!!!

My auto guru deva. "I know there's special tools, but I can't figure them out. So I just do this." That's the zen spirit of a mopar master.

I recently finished a disk swap on my truck (squarebody) and the advantages of all 4 disks are amazing

Even though I don't do any mechanic work, it's quite interesting to listen to you talk and show how to repair these mechanical wonders. Thank you for making these kinds of videos!

Timely video indeed! I used to do these things in my sleep, but it’s been years. Today I went out to assemble the brakes on my Chevelle, which has been apart for a while. Sat there scratching my head. I do have the special tools, inherited from dad, I always use them . Also found out the backing plates had been put on the wrong sides, so I had to pull the axles and fix that first. Thanks for the tips

Love your no bullshit approach , truly a pleasure watching you in your element Take care Uncle Tony and God bless

I always left one side together on the car for reference. I learned that the hard way when I was young.

I’m 28 and I’ve been watching my dad mess with drum brakes for many years, when I bought my 72 dart it needed a complete brake system overhaul, after finding all the right parts I did every wheel on the car quick with minimal issues and he pretty was impressed.

Tony, take that star wheel all the way apart, lube clean and lube those dirty (brake dust) threads up. One more thing close up the opening end of the return springs where your screwdriver spread them open, and make sure the bracket where the cable runs through is seated in the brake shoe, then test the cable and arm of the adjuster by pulling the cable and you should see the adjuster actually work. Good video for the younger generation

This is going to help so many people who really have no experience in drum brakes. Well done as usual guys.

Holy moly. I have been wrenching on my own vehicles for maybe 50 years. Just my own ! Your videos showed me more tricks and really good advice. Thanks Tony. I’m going to keep watching

Awesome Uncle T, thanks! Drums on front and rear of my 64 Corvair. Disc brakes? We don’t need no stinking disc brakes!

Thank you Uncle Tony for the video.

Gotta be honest, as a forklift tech the best tool i ever bought for duo-servo drum brakes is SnapOn BT-11 and BT-12 - makes getting those top springs on and off effortless! I used vice grips/screwdriver for years and when another forklift mechanic showed me these it really changed the whole thing from "eugh, brake jib" to "cool, brake job"😂

The major advantage I've found with disk brakes over drum brakes is something that is more a regional or very limited time frame issue. Disk brakes still work after driving through a lot of over the wheel water. In the summer time here in SW Florida after an afternoon rain storm there can be many streets with lots of water on them and drum brakes don't like that kind of conditions.

UTG is the coolest dude in this space..Thanks brother

Pontiac 8-lugs - Another great video! I have 8-lugs on my '62 Pontiac GP. Another reason to stay w drum brakes! Thanks Tony!

Good info Tony for most people do one at a time and take pitchers before taking apart unless you do it often.

It just goes to show your never too old to learn something new man what a great show this is the best mechanical show on the keep up the great work thanks BROTHER.

Now,, I'm piss off,,,,, with my self,, after years Installing the break shoes one by one,,,, Dang,, the good stuff I learning with Uncle Tony, Thanks!!

I never knew drum brakes were bad until I went on youtube .Ran them for ever without a problem and never had dirty rims either ..... I'm lucky to have survived all these years

I have about five variations of that weird brake tool and have never been able to figure out how to use them. Glad to know I’m not alone.

Yep for the stopping power the drums can't be beat by disc which is why trackter trailers use drums. I was told somewhere that they would have to have something like 3 sets of disc brakes to have the same stopping. capabilities.

I work on antique motorcycles with drum brakes and cable actuation. You simply can't get the exact brake shoe material thickness you need to reline the shoe's. Once I reline the shoe's they will go into the drum but they won't have full contact with the drum brake surface. You don't want to ride the bike with shoe's that need to wear in until full braking power is achieved. To fix this I glue sandpaper to the drum braking surface, put the drum on, then adjust the adjuster until the shoe's contact the sandpaper. Then turn the wheel and adjust the adjuster to sand the shoe's to the drum. You can remove the drum to see the progress and once the entire shoe's show evidence of full contact with the sandpaper you are done. Then remove the sandpaper and glue from the drum. You will then have full braking available without wearing in the shoe's.

Of course you and Wes make this look so easy after a few weeks ago I screwed around with my 96 Chevy truck drums for a few hours before I figured out where all the parts were supposed to go.

Right on Tony! Before I worked in a shop, I struggled with drum brakes. Good thing to take the time to show these simple tricks that take a job from onerous to easy. I also wish you'd shown the trick of putting a hose clamp over the end of the parking brake cable housing, to retract the fingers and make it easy to remove. Nobody showed me that one, had to figure that out for myself... But there's one more thing that I came up with: I used to use Windex to clean all the dusty gak off the backing plate. If there was any grease on there, that got a shot of brake cleaner, after the glass cleaner had gone on. Glass cleaner does a great job on brake dust, and any of the water soluble brake fluids (non DOT 5). It doesn't kick the brake dust up and throw it all over the place like a shot from can of brake cleaner does Just throw a drain pan under the backing plate, hit the mess with some windex, dry it off with a rag. When you're done, wipe out the drain pan. Makes cleanup a snap. Easiest way I've found.

Do not mix up self adjusters. Lh goes on drivers side and rh goes on passenger side. Or your brakes will self unadjust. Yes, I have seen that and even worse.

I love it Tony. You are so right about Drum Brakes. All my mechanic friends keep telling me to get rid of my 11 inch drum brakes on my Chrysler. I always tell them I like the drum brakes and they work great for all the years I have driven these cars. Great advice as always!

I like that you not only show how it’s done but that you explain the benefits of drums over discs. So many people insist that disc brakes are the only way to go and don’t realize that drums are fine for over 90% of drivers and driving conditions.

WOW!!! Thank you so much!! Bout to do both sides on my 70’ Monte Carlo

That's how I've been doing um 40 odd years now, dad had one of those spring tools, tried it went back to a screw driver. Wheel cylinders for me leaked about 50% of the time (rust belt salt maybe?) so I always rebuild the things, until a guy I knew at the parts store told me what new ones cost. Probably can't even buy the kits anymore. Worth noting large trucks with a few rare exceptions (Mack had discs in front a while) use drums. As long as you don't ride the brakes going down a mountain, they don't fade.

I switched to factory front disc brake on my 68 442 and couldn't be happier. No brake fade here.

Uncle- Perfect timing!!! I just decoded the Dart fender tag after owning the car a year+... And my 1 of 100k(?) Slant Six Dart Custom, that Id planned to restomod with a carbureted 5.7, disc and axle upgrades, etc... turned out to be a 1 of 25 V1H Floral Top car!!! (Often referred to as a Mod Top but that was Plymouth) So...no Hemi, no discs, no mods...now it will just get a stock resto!!! The brakes are toast, so guess ill be rebuilding them all now!!!

Finally, some experienced, insightful, useful, helpful information. Thank you. This is the kind of stuff you realize after doing your first brake job and then wonder why all the other videos you watched before hand didn't mention.

Thanks for this video Tony! I am sure it is very helpful to a lot of people. My take on the state of drums in 2022? If you can find NOS parts, working on drums is a breeze that just requires patience and attention to details. If you are working with new replacement parts? just throw the whole thing away and buy more new replacement parts. And by this I mean, if the brakes had stuff replaced in the last 15-20 years, there is no "fixing" them anymore, they rust like they were in the ocean and most of it doesn't fit right to begin with. I replaced some parts on my 1990 Ramcharger. The drums were good, the shoes were actually pretty good. but the rusted chinesium stuff made them bind and stick, and even lock in reverse. New parts. Brand new! Figured that would do the trick right? Some of them didn't fit as well as the old rusted stuff! And in the end, they didn;t work right anyway, no matter how I tried to get them adjusted. Stuff was cleaned, adjusted properly, and I had to take a wheel off once a month to mess with them. Screw chinesium junk. I replaced the self adjuster mechanism twice and they fit differently from each other and niether of them would work for more then 3 weeks. So I put a disc kit on it. i didn;t need a proportional valve because it's a heavy truck with plenty or rubber to stop them from grabbing, and I don;t drive that beast like a race car anyway. It cost me about $50 more then if i had to buy all new drums etc anyway, and no more BS. You can teach everyone exactly how to fix these things and how they work, but you can;t teach china how to make the parts properly, they don;t care anyway. I have my old police car to fix up yet, and didn;t plan on discs for that one. I will be watching swaps for NOS brake parts all summer. Hell, I would pick 40 year old, nice shape used over what you can get from the box stores now. Dangit, just thinking about that fiasco with my brakes two years ago is making me irritable! I don't live in the south, so my weather might have an effect, your milage may vary.

Love Wes' and Tony's channels. They should do a drum brake episode together!

Timely...need to do the front brakes on my '67 F100...thanks for the refresher. Last set of drums I did was on my '73 Duster...that was YEARS ago...everything I've had since was discs...

Thank you Uncle Tony.

My first dragster had Buick aluminum drums. I would frequently bust them open during hard braking. As they became difficult or impossible to find I decided it was time to switch to discs. The disc brakes made it far easier to stage the car (a benefit I was not expecting). The drum brakes would grab and release in a jerky fashion, making it difficult to land the car in the beams. The disc brakes would let me roll in smoothly and make a precise stop. I noticed no difference in reaction times with either brake.

Really great video! Straight to the point and how to was great! Thank you.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Bendix drum brakes are the best.

I've done drum brakes twice, once on my 69 mustang project car a few years ago and again last year on my 1980 Firebird Formula. The first side I start on always takes me 3-4 hours and then the other side takes maybe 30 minutes.

Awesome vid . Drum brakes never did me wrong .

I used to train my apprentices to do drum brakes this way at Toyota, I never thought about it on other makes. I’ve bought and used the tools, I can only think of a couple occasions when they made the job easier, pliers and long flat head for the win

My OE - aftermarket disc brake conversions tend to work beautifully...plus, they come with a free IFS and rear end upgrade! My Chevrolets may have a 5-4.50" lug pattern, but I'll take the junkyard over a Jegs catalog any day

This takes me back to about 1965 and a 65 Ford custom. Seems to me clutches lasted about thirty thousand as did brakes back then, four wheel drums. Dad disassembled all four wheels and didn't know how to fit all the pieces back in place. Still have a 58 Chevy truck sitting in my driveway. Love those old trucks!

I like this video, gives the youngsters some tips they should learn. Many years ago I was taking auto shop in high school before I got kicked out in my senior year 1977 my auto shop teacher at the time was a man called Fred Krueger seriously Krueger was like 7 ft tall Marine buzz cut looked like Frankenstein had a steel plate in his chest that he could stick a magnet to from some accident where a Jeep fell off the lift when he was taking cover during a air raid when he was stationed in the South Pacific during world war II. Big old Marine. The sort of teacher that would threaten to strain you through the brick wall if you pissed him off, I seen him throw wrenches at the vice principal for coming into the auto shop without calling ahead. If you didn't get caught you could smoke in the tool room. He had no problem with picking you up by your hair and banging your head off his chest if you pissed him off. we used to pitch in to buy Kruger a whiskey for Christmas every year. And this is exactly how Kruger taught us how to do it. His reasoning was, you can buy all the fancy tools you want you know they're around here somewhere, but everybody has a screwdriver and a pair of pliers and it's just easier this way. And I've been doing it this way ever since oh at least 1976. Thanks for the memory Tony.

Excellent. I've been studying drum brakes for about a week and picked up spring pliers, a shoe retaining spring tool, and a brake spoon. I collect and restore old hand tools so I needed to get these. My 2006 Matrix has drums in the back. I find it very interesting learning how to use these obscure tools.

Thanks for the tips! Never heard of a quick R&R on a drum brake though, wheel cylinders are usually mandatory and nothing but rust.

I’ve done a few in my day and no matter what still get ya thinking! Cell phones take plenty of free pics nowadays 😎

Very well explained thank you!!

Got yourself a new subscriber for life.. 5 minute brake shoe job? You earned it brother.. for Life I tell ya'...

I've always stuck with the factory rear drum setups on my mk1/2 Vws. Yeah,you can swap to MK2 16valve rear discs,but for these older cars that sit alot the sliders stick and burn up the pads. The Mk4s are notorious for this, I've changed 2 sets of rears before the fronts went bad. On my mk2,I put new rear drum everything on a full rebuild in 2002. I drove it a few summers and parked it inside for 10yrs. Opened it up for inspection, it needed wheel cylinders and that was 2013, since then they haven't needed a thing. Yeah it's a summer car, but guaranteed I'd be futzing with stuck disc brake sliders and whatnot if I swapped. And besides, the back doesn't do much more than 30% of the braking and you can swap to the larger rabbit pickup drums too.

My 2005 Dodge caravan has drum brakes still designed the the same as your demonstration plate. Works great especially if you have a van load of folks. I have always liked drum brakes for stopping heavy stuff and if you want to hold and do burnouts setting still, you leave the rears in the 30% to 40% range. If they get wet in mud puddles or flooding streets to prevent stopping fade, just ride them a bit and dry the water off the shoes. I lived in Florida torrential rain storms, then Sunshine an hour later worked great drying them out or you could not stop soon enough. Just had to get used to the feel of setting the tension, run the shoes in about 100 miles, then use the auto adjusters in reverse to balance the shoe tension.

Right again! My 57 D/G has all 4 stock drums and stops just fine at the end of the 1/4.