Brake reference thread

[Cowboy Dave]

This thread should be regarded as a draft thread. It may take some refining over time, as I’ve bashed it out without the bits and pieces in front of me and it has been some weeks since I did the job. Given that it’s intended as a reference thread, I invite submissions on any improvements that I can make to it. If you have a trick you reckon is worth sharing, or you spot a mistake I’ve made by all means point it out either in this thread or via PM or whatever. Also, apologies for the photos but they were all on the iphone so hardly high resolution or well lit or anything like that

So I recently had occasion to change my rear brake shoes. There wasn’t a whole lot of information out there so I stuffed it up. Second time round it went much better with a fair bit of help from the Geek. Geek and I refined our technique as we went and got pretty good at it by the end. So, having had some success and gathered a whole lot of information, I thought I might stick it all in one thread.


Caveats etc

Now keep in mind that I am not a mechanic. Not a brake specialist. Not a parts interpreter. Not a Mitsubishi tech. While all care has been taken with this thread brakes are a serious business and doing them yourself involves some risk. I won’t be taking responsibility or held liable for things going wrong – this is just a helpful guide based on my own personal experiences. If you want to read more into this thread than that then please re-think before proceeding further. If you don’t have at least some mechanical aptitude consider getting a mate to help – or consulting an expert. Brakes are serious business and if they go wrong they can go wrong in a bad way...

Many of the images will require you to click on them for a full view. I could have re-sized them but I took the view the more detail the better so left them large.

Some of the images in this thread have been ‘borrowed’ with thanks to Mitsubishi. I acknowledge that Mitsubishi owns those images and reproduce them here only for educational purposes. Okay, down to business.


Parts

Before you start you may want to think about the parts you might need. First off, the main consumables – the brake shoes.

OEM rear shoes - 4600A106
Bendix rear shoes - BS5018
Repco re-branded Bendix shoes RBS5018
Protex rear shoes - N3093

Then there’s the drums.

OEM rear drums – I could use a part number here. I had one I thought was right but now wonder if that was for the MK. If someone could get me the right number I’ll edit this later.

Protex rear drum - DRUM4111

How to measure whether you need new drums:




If you’re not sure whether your shoes are worn to the point of needing replacement, there is a small inspection hole in the backing plate. If you get under the vehicle and look out towards your rear wheel at about the 9 o’clock point on the driver’s side and 3 o’clock point on the passenger side you should be able to see a small rubber plug maybe 15mm long sitting vertically. If you remove that and get a good line of sight and light you can look at the side view of your front brake shoe. I found this pretty useless but your results might be better. While you’re under there looking at rubber covers, there is another at the top, horizontally. This covers the adjuster wheel to tighten up the brakes – more on this later.


Since we’re measuring and all, here’s the other specifications:





Now, while we’re talking parts, let’s look at the rest of the assembly.

First, the exploded diagram (note this is the passenger side view):




Now the part names to match the numbers in that diagram:




I’ll try to use those proper names in what follows, but no guarantees on that. The retainer clip at item 12 I will call the horseshoe clip for reasons that will later become obvious.

Now just to confuse things, this is a list of Mitsubishi part numbers for the parts in that diagram. It’s a snip/capture from a quote where I was buying parts. Unfortunately the names don’t match from the invoice to the workshop manual so I’ll try and interpret that a little for you.





So:
2 Shoe lever spring = 145 and 146 (maybe)
3 Clip – this is a tiny circlip thing and I think it’s the 104 snap ring
4 Auto adjuster lever = 143 LH and 144 RH
5 Anchor spring = hmm, not sure this one is on that list?
6 Shoe hold down spring = 148 shoe hold down
7 Shoe hold down pin = 147
8 Adjuster assembly = 139 LH and 140 RH – note that passenger side is black and driver’s side silver
9 Piston spring = 141
10 Brake shoes = see part numbers further up the page for these
13 Horseshoe clip = 138
14 Wave washer = 137


Having done all of that I’m not at all sure I was successful marrying up the part numbers. It doesn’t help that the numbers used in the manual don’t all seem to line up correctly with the numbers in the diagram. Colour me confused. If there’s a Mitsubishi tech out there or a helpful dealer who wants to give me a better version of my attempt that matches the part numbers to the diagram that would be most helpful.


Equipment/Tools

Okay so that was exciting. Not. So you’re all ready to go right? Not so fast. Here’s a list of handy items to have on hand before you start:

Parts – as above
Jack and axle stands or a hoist
Chocks for front wheels
Rubber mallet
Brake adjusting tool or suitable lever or flat screwdriver
Brake bleeder (more on this later)
8 and 10mm ring spanners (I can never remember which size is front and which rear but if you have one no doubt you’ll have the other too)
2 longish M8 high tensile bolts (optional)
Multigrips or pliers
Needle nose pliers
Flat bladed screwdriver
Shifter/aka shifting spanner (also optional)
Low tack masking tape (optional)
Rags or cleaning wipes
Brake fluid (dot 3 or dot 4)
High temperature bearing grease and something to apply it with (I used paddle pop sticks)
Can of brake cleaner
Emery paper or flexible sanding block
Small hammer and punch
Wheel brace/rattle gun – yeah obvious I know, but since I’m trying to be thorough…
A clear/clean flat surface or work bench (I used an esky, I think Geek used my tailgate)
A bucket or container for parts


Preparation

Right, so clear your workspace. Park the vehicle on flat ground. You want it stable with the handbrake off so use park for an auto and I guess first for a manual. Chock your front wheels. The handbrake is off right? Loosen the rear wheel nuts with your wheel brace unless using a rattle gun.

Now jack up the rear of the vehicle. You can do one side at a time but I prefer a trolley jack under the diff lifting the whole rear end as that saves time. Place axle stands under axles or maybe chassis rails if that suits. Never work under a vehicle which is only supported by a jack.

Remove a rear wheel - I'm going to work off the driver's side first so if you're using these instructions it might be best if you do too. Place the wheel under the sill/chassis rail as a further safety precaution in case the vehicle drops.


Drum removal

The next step depends on how far gone your brakes are. If they are really loose or really worn you can probably skip this step. If not, read on.

Now, reach around to the rear of the brake drum to the backing plate. At 12 o’clock there is a rubber plug – item 19 in the exploded diagram. Remove the plug. If you then feel around inside with your brake adjusting tool you should be able to find the toothed adjusting wheel (the round bit on item 8 in the diagram).

Here’s a closer picture of the wheel you’re after – to the right of the big silver spring:

[Cowboy Dave]

What we’re looking to do is ease off the adjuster to move the shoes away from the drum to make it easier to get the drum off. You need to lever the wheel downwards. Keep levering til you feel like you’ve had enough and then try pulling the drum off. If it feels like it’s grabbing maybe lever some more.


Now, this step comes with a warning. If you go too hard with these, and you haven’t eased off that adjuster, you could damage some stuff. Remember those M8 bolts? Well I hope M8 fits. Pretty sure they’re M8 but it’s dark and raining out and I don’t want to go and check. Anyway, there are two threaded holes in the outer face of the drums. Here’s a picture I stole from someone on the L200 forum in the UK which shows how you can use them:





The drums will only really be tough to drag off if they’re binding with the shoes – or, as occurred with mine, the hold down springs have come off and the shoes are coming off with the drums (which is not good).


Aside from the adjuster being loosened your other option is to deploy the mallet. A hammer could theoretically deform your drums (but you’d have to be a bit of a butcher) so we’ll stick with the mallet. Basically we’re tapping the drums to shake them free of the shoes if they’re binding.


So, you’re pulling off the drums, tapping etc and eventually they’ll come free. If you haven’t already, stop and crack open a beer while you ponder the next step. Now would be a good time to inspect the drums. The measurements are already up there ^^^. Check the inner face for scoring or other signs of damage. You want a nice smooth even surface. If your surface is not smooth see if you can work out why - something may have shaken loose and fallen in but chances are whatever it was has been ground up and spat out. Put them aside for later.


Removing the brake shoes from the vehicle

At the bottom of the assembly is a small spring and the handbrake cable.




The handbrake cable has that silver spring on it and goes into the silver lever to the left. If you grab the end of the cable and pull it left so as to compress the spring, you’ll then be able to push it upwards and out of that lever/bracket. It should then hang free. Then using pliers (or a screwdriver can also work) remove the small spring from the bottom of the shoes.

Now you need to remove the two hold down springs which show up in the top corners of the above image. Basically you need to compress the spring inwards, and rotate the T shaped head on the pin so that it falls through the elongated slot on the spring/clip.

Pull the hold down pins out from behind the backing plate and set aside – check that the pins have a good T shape about them (I had two that looked like arrow heads and they were pretty ineffective). Note that Bendix shoes are sometimes supplied with replacement hold down spring clips. If your shoes didn’t come with replacement spring clips make sure you don’t damage the ones on there.

At this point the rest of the brake assembly will basically come off in one big piece. If you pull the lower ends of both shoes outwards they will basically hinge around the wheel cylinders and you’ll be able to slide the point of the shoes off the pistons of the wheel cylinders in an upwards direction.

Try not to pop the pistons out of the wheel cylinders and don’t play with them too much. Fiddling with them will introduce air to your brake lines and we don’t want that. Also, you need to always be scrupulously clean with wheel cylinders – you don’t want to introduce grit as that will cause wear and tear that we don’t want. I’ll put some more stuff about wheel cylinders towards the end.

Place the assembled stuff on a flat work surface. Consider another beer. Now is a good time to consider cleaning off your backing plate. There will be brake dust and grime and maybe some grease. I used workshop wipes and got it back to looking factory clean. This might not be necessary but we’re going to add some grease later and I figured dust might contribute to my squealing brakes so the less dust the better. When you clean the backing plate off you might find some small wear marks where the shoes have been rubbing – these will coincide with where we will apply grease later.


Dismantling the assembled shoes and springs etc

Now, compare the removed brakes to the brake shoes in your box. They are not identical for both sides so you’ll need to pick the right shoes for the side you’re working on.

There are two pins that come through the shoes. On the ones I bought one pin was already in place and the other had to be knocked out of the old shoes and pushed into the new ones from behind. In the image below you’ll see one pin under the horseshoe clip on the left (the handbrake lever pivots on this) and one on the right through the silver lever that goes up to the slack adjuster (click for full image).




So work out which pin you have and which you need and remember that you’ll have to tap one out and tap it back in again once you’ve stripped everything. While it's all still together have a look at the placement of the ends of the adjuster rod. They have notches in them for the handbrake lever and the adjuster lever and it helps to remember which way round they go when it comes time to re-assemble. There are steps in the U shape at either end, and it is logical once you think about it but I made the mistake of not looking before I pulled them off and that meant I had to think about it more than I wanted to.

My approach here was to remove it piece by piece, clean the pieces as I went, and lay them out in a way that I could remember. You will have the benefit of some photos here, but also you’ve got the other side’s assembly still sitting together if you really get confused and need to consult further.

Let’s start with the horseshoe. It’s not hard to get off but since Mitsubishi has been kind enough to provide guidance, here it is:




I’ve found if you put a flat blade across the open part of the horseshoe and push you can then grab the U shaped bit with pliers or a hook and pull it off. Or you can try the twisting screwdriver as indicated in the Mitsubishi diagram. Trial and error, steady as she goes and all that.

There’s a washer underneath which is curved. That applies upwards tension on the horseshoe. Try not to lose or damage the washer – this is the wave washer and it is not hard to damage.

Once the horseshoe clip is off, and the wave washer off, the lever should lift free. You may need to pull the shoes apart to stretch the spring a little to free it. You can leave it there til later if that suits but it does theoretically prevent access to one end of the big spring.

Now on the other side, where the silver adjuster lever is sitting, there is a tiny circlip aka snap ring (item 3 in the exploded diagram) retaining the lever on the silver pin. Again, this item is delicate and we want to re-use it unless you’ve bought new ones, so be careful. I offer no tips as I can’t remember how I got it off. Maybe Geek did that one. I’d go with the screwdriver and needle nosed pliers.

Once that circlip/snap ring comes off there is a long thin spring holding that lever down which runs through a hole in the shoe. Remove that with the lever and set aside.

Now it’s time to remove the big spring. As with anything there’s an easy way and an easier way. The less easy way is to grab the spring with multigrips, force it outwards and pop it out of the hole on the brake shoe. The easier way (I reckon anyway) is that if you pull the shoes apart a little, the end bit of the adjuster (the short bit to the right of the toothed adjuster wheel) can pop off the adjuster and be pulled free. Once that’s out of the way the tension is gone from the spring and it’s easy to take it off. I figure it's easier to grab hold of the brake shoes than it is to hold the little spring with multigrips and apply the same sort of force especially if you’re doing it on your own.


Re-assembly

At this point you should have all your pieces apart, hopefully undamaged. Find that pin I was talking about earlier and tap it out gently with a hammer and punch. If you have a small enough hammer and a good eye you might get by without the punch. Bring it to the new shoes and tap it back in from behind.

At this stage you should have washed your hands. We don’t want the new shoes getting dirty, oily, greasy etc. Another tip I found on the net somewhere was to run some strips of low tack masking tape over the wearing surface of the new shoes. That way you can work away on them and they’ll stay clean until you pull the tape off at the end.

I’ll mention grease points again below, but it’s relevant here too. Unwind your adjuster all the way out and check that your threads are nice and clean. The threads are meant to be greased so if yours are looking dry now is the time. You should also grease the inside of the cup/end piece that sits on the end of the adjuster but I’d leave that until you’re about to put it back together – after the other clips and springs anyway.

Here’s a tiny diagram of what I mean in terms of grease points on the adjuster, not that you really need it but since I have it, why not?




Now, start with the handbrake lever. Theoretically the pin on which it sits could use a tiny bit of grease but for how often you’d use it I didn’t bother. Also I didn’t think of it when I was doing it . The horseshoe clip is mildly fiddly but only because of the tension brought in by the wave washer. Now remember the curve on the wave washer faces so the inside of the curve is down towards the shoe and the outside of the curve is up towards the horseshoe.

Here’s some pics (I didn’t need to squeeze mine in with pliers as indicated here – I guess it depends how tight a fit you achieve and whether you spread it a lot when removing it):

[Cowboy Dave]

When you’re looking at the wave washer pictures, try to ignore the stuff to the left of the shoe, I can’t recall there being an adjuster lever on the same pin so I don’t know what they’re on about there.

Now you have a choice between putting the auto adjuster lever (the silver lever that goes to the toothed wheel) on now, or after the big spring. I don’t think it matters and I think I left mine til afterwards. If you want to do it the other way skip ahead a bit then come back.

The adjuster is supposed to run down the centre of the spring. Put it in but keep the short end that fits over the toothed wheel aside. Rotate the other end so that the stepped U shape is the right way around to sit on the brake shoe and over the handbrake lever that you just fitted. Stick the end bit over the handbrake lever loosely and loop that end of the big spring around behind the shoe and through the hole which is covered by the handbrake lever. Now line up the other side and insert the spring into the hole on the right hand shoe. Hopefully that went on without too much force being required. Note that you can rotate/twist the right shoe a little to help line it up as there is nothing else holding that shoe at this stage.

Now take the other end of the adjuster and check you have grease inside the rounded/hollow end. Study the U shaped end to work out how it should sit on the shoe. An extra hand at this point can be handy, if only for a second or two. You basically need to pull the two shoes apart against the weight of the spring, enough to pop the U shaped end onto the shoe and the round/hollow end over the end cap of the adjuster wheel. Once you get it right it’s pretty easy.

Now it’s time to get the little adjuster lever onto its pin. Again a tiny amount of grease is theoretically advisable here but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the pin wasn’t lubed. While you’re lining up the adjuster lever onto the pin, note that towards the top it needs to sit under the U shaped end of the adjuster like so:




You can open up the gap where it needs to slide in by rotating the shoe backwards/downwards a little and then sit it over the pin. The little snap ring/circlip needs to go onto the pin to hold the lever on. If you have strong thumbnails you can place it over the tapered head of the pin and by firmly pressing down on both sides at once it will spread over the head and clip back into the groove that houses it and holds everything in place. If you have weak finger nails you may need to press it on with a suitable tool – maybe the open jaws of your pliers will apply even pressure if you do it properly.

Once that’s in place you need to re-attach the long thin spring that goes over the lever and stretch it down into the elongated vertical hole on the right shoe. It’s pretty light gauge so it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to stretch it on.


Grease points

Now that we’re about to put everything back together it is time to mention grease. Yes grease. I was surprised too as I’d never noticed grease in my brake area before but the manual calls for it and it makes sense.

According to the diagram you’re also supposed to use some rubber grease on the rubber boots of the wheel cylinders – at least as I read it. I didn’t bother although I did eventually find some PBR rubber grease at an auto store (black tube, red writing). I never did find the actual grease Mitsubishi specifies in the manual.

So here’s the diagram:




Look at the diagram marked 21. It won’t make much sense at first. If you lift up your assembled brake shoes though and look at them from behind it will start to make sense. There are flattened tabs around the edges of the shoes that correspond with the 6 grey points in the diagram. They also correspond with 6 points on the backing plate where those tabs will rub when the shoes are in place. You could either grease the backing plate at those locations or grease the tabs on the shoes. If you put the masking tape on the shoes earlier you’ll be happy about that now. Apply the high temperature bearing grease sparingly. We don’t want it spraying around anywhere, just a little dab with a paddle pop stick or a cotton bud or something should do the trick.

Also here’s the specs re products:




Re-installing the shoes etc

Centre the pistons on the wheel cylinder if you can. Find the small spring that goes between the two holes at the bottom of the shoes (see the picture way up there ^^ from when we were removing it to see how it sits). Line the shoes up and spread the assembly at the bottom to go over the wheel hub. You may need to separate the top part of the shoes slightly to get them onto the grooves on the pistons of the wheel cylinder.

The bottom toes of the shoes go into the black slots:




Your results may vary but I found once I had them into those black slots and the small spring on, they were pretty stable and didn’t keep falling off the wheel cylinder.

Now it is time to install the shoe hold down pins. These are the pins that look like clouts with a T shape on one end. You need the spring clips with the rectangular slots. Insert a pin from behind and sit the spring clip over it. You need to compress the spring clip and then rotate the T head of the pin. Sometimes they go on easy, and other times they’re a pain in the arse.

Geek did well with needle nosed pliers that had a bend in the end of them but you need something to hold the spring still when you rotate the pin. I found using a slightly opened shifter (opened the width of the pin’s thickness) I could push the spring clip down then rotate the T – not a conventional approach but it was easiest. You use the shifter end on, handle towards you and open jaws facing into the flat of the shoe – hopefully that makes sense. Anyway it’s not rocket science. Just make sure the T is sitting firmly on the hold down spring.

Next comes the handbrake cable. Grab hold of the metal end in your left hand. Work your needle nose pliers in between the metal end and the spring. Slide the pliers away from your left hand to compress the spring. Once you have enough free cable squeeze the pliers onto the wire to hold the spring out of the way and push/pull the wire into the opening on the bottom of the handbrake lever with the metal bit out the left hand side. Once it’s in you can release the pliers. Check the picture above for alignment of the spring and make sure it all looks like that.


Re-installing the drum

Some drums will develop a small ridge or ridges where the shoes haven’t worn the surface down. This can make it harder to put them back on over the new shoes. We found that by giving them a very quick rub down in a circular motion around the drum with a sanding/emery pad they went on smooth every time. So give them a quick rub back and then hit them with the brake cleaner spray. Down be shy about the spray, hook right into it and get them as clean as you can. They’ll air dry pretty quickly – don’t put them on wet.

Remove the masking tape from the shoes if you used it. Make sure the pistons look right and the shoes are sitting pretty centrally in the piston slots. Check the rubber boots around the pistons are sitting properly and not damaged or pinched or whatever. Have a last minute check of the springs etc. Check the adjuster is wound all the way in.

Line your drum up over the shoes. Try not to hit the shoes too hard in any one direction. We found they went on pretty easily, just make sure you’ve got the studs roughly lined up with the holes in the drums. You removed those M8 bolts already right?

While you’re sitting there with the tyre off you may as well reach around and lever the adjuster a bit to get the shoes closer to the drum. Rotate the studs/drum and listen for rubbing. It should turn cleanly at first. To tighten the brakes you’re levering the toothed wheel upwards. You should hear little clicks as the adjuster clicks around on the spring loaded lever inside. Others may take a different view but I clicked mine up til I could feel or hear a tiny bit of grab and then left it to adjust with the wheels on later.

For my part I left the wheel off at this point so that I could bleed both sides without getting right under the car.


The passenger side

The passenger side is essentially the same as the drivers side, but some of the positions of pieces is the other way around. I will just put up some pics for you to compare to if need be – noting that the original exploded view was from this side of the vehicle.













Bleeding the brakes

Okay so now that we’re at nearly 5000 words in I am running out of steam a bit so I’m going to shortcut on bleeding the brakes a little. If someone else wants to write a guide on that I can paste it in later.

So if you’ve re-assembled everything and your drums are back on and shoes adjusted up nicely you should find your handbrake feels tighter and engages earlier. If you stick your foot on the brakes though you may find your pedal slowly sinking to the floor. This is because you have air bubbles in your brake fluid and the air compresses more than the fluid does, only gradually. If this is what happens then you need to bleed your brakes. It is good practice to bleed the brakes after changing pads or shoes anyway if you ask me.

Now, on Tritons there is a specific order in which bleeding should be done which is basically from furthest away from the booster working to closest. But don’t listen to me on that, here is a chart from Mitsubishi that explains the order:

[Cowboy Dave]

I found with mine that bleeding the rear was sufficient when I’d only interfered with the rear brakes. It’s a matter for you to check and what you’re comfortable with. The procedure is the same both front and rear, the only difference being the size of the spanner you need to loosen the bleed nipple.

Supercheap and similar places sell a little one man brake bleeding kit that comes with a little plastic bottle, some clear hose and some little plastic nozzle things that fit inside the bleed nipple. They might be called 1 man kits but for me it required two people, one to push the pedal and one to hold the bottle and loosen/tighten the nipple.

The second time round I got a vacuum brake bleeding tool. Awesome when it works. You’ll find some examples here http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/vacuum-brake-bleeder

Basically you pump it to create vacuum, open the nipple, let the vacuum suck some fluid out, tighten the nipple, create vacuum again and so on. Worth the price of admission if you’re flying solo or planning on doing the job more than once or twice.

Now rather than give you chapter and verse on how to do the whole process I am going to outsource it to another site. This is a reasonable guide to what’s involved in the process:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-bleed-your-brakes.html
It’s not perfect nor vehicle specific but it contains the basics of the exercise.


Wheel cylinders

One forum member suggested to me that I should replace the wheel cylinders when replacing shoes. They turned out to be more expensive than I thought so I didn’t bother. They strike me as too easy to stuff up so I take the view I am better off leaving them alone. Nevertheless this is supposed to be a reference thread and there is a small amount of information in the manual so I’ll repeat that here for information purposes:







Pedal adjustments

I haven’t had to do this on mine, but as above this is a reference thread and the manual has some content on the topic so why not share?













Handbrake adjustment

See this thread for how to do it: http://www.newtriton.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2446&p=34525&hilit=handbrake#p34525

You should find your handbrake feels a lot tighter with just new shoes fitted so get the shoe adjustment right before fiddling with the handbrake.

So there you have it, hopefully everything you need to know and then some.

Lee if you're out there, some help on the part numbers would be great

[viking shippy]

Good work Dave I will have a read tomoz and see if I did mine right lol

[Calblitzen]

Great guide there Dave.
With referance to the wheel cylinders, I believe that there is no need to touch unless they are weeping or wet in that area. In my experience, if the cylinders and/or pistons are not scored or rusted, then you may only need to change the piston rubbers and outer rubbers reducing the costs. This will also require significant bleeding of the brake system.

[macca002]

Awesome write up. Will come in handy if/when I ever get stuck in sand or mud

[srb]

Thats one hell of a write up... Well done Dave! Your one committed man!
And your timing is great because I have just ordered some new brake shoes! So will use your guide when fitting them, thanks mate.

[macca002]

Quick question - with the brake adjusting wheel, do you start with the screw driver at the top and push town, or start with the screw driver down and push up?

I have done this before on a different 4x4 and cant remember which way to adjust. All I know is that if you adjust too far the wrong way, then its a big PITA to get the drum off or spin the wheel back the other way to loosen off

[Cowboy Dave]

I knew someone would ask that. I debated with myself how best to describe it and decided 'lever up' made sense. Guess I was wrong.

Actually I'm not sure which of your options works for me either.

How about I describe it this way - you're levering so that the top of the toothed wheel is rotating away from you rather than towards you. So when I do it the lever is against the top of the opening angled downwards towards the wheel and then I pull the lever downwards at my end pushing the far end of the lever upwards. Hopefully that makes sense.

Another way might be to say that if you're on the driver's side, looking from rear to front along the adjuster, you're making the toothed wheel rotate clockwise. On the passenger side you're asking it to rotate counter-clockwise, again looking from rear to front.

Fortunately Mitsubishi had the sense to make it the same both sides too (ie lever up to tighten and down to loosen).

If you're actually doing the job you get the chance to rotate the adjusters in your hands and see which way opens them up and which way closes them.

Anyway if that doesn't get the image into you post up again and maybe I can come up with a diagram that does better than my words.

[Cowboy Dave]

Thats one hell of a write up... Well done Dave! Your one committed man!
And your timing is great because I have just ordered some new brake shoes! So will use your guide when fitting them, thanks mate.

Yeah it was a bit of a killer. Took me about 3 night's worth of typing and half a night stuffing around with images and the manual and stuff. I was toying with the idea for a while and then got lazy and left it. The mistake I made was mentioning it to Geek, Tony and Snowie who were onto it immediately. Next time I'll remember to keep my trap shut.

[macca002]

Maybe this will help?

Red or White option?

[Cowboy Dave]

Red for that side

[har05l]

Red

[Sky Miner]

'Thanx CD great write up

[NowForThe5th]

Great write-up CD and excellent photos make it even easier to follow.

[fridgie]

The handle of the lever, when used through the hole in the inside of the drum, goes down.

When tightening, tighten adjuster 'firmly' then back off about 4 or 5 clicks which should give you the right adjustment (as taught to me by Newstead mechanic)

[Froggy]

Thanks for the write up Dave that will certainly come in handy! Do you think you could upload it as a PDF to make it easier to print out?

[godzilla_rising]

Cool, so that's the rear brakes, hand brake and bleeding. Are there any details on the front brakes, the rotor itself is easy enough, but more the caliper, torques etc?

[godzilla_rising]

I've got the torque for the pin bolts (27NM) but what of the other two bolts that hold everything to hub etc?

Is there any grease or anything required anywhere? Any other sticking points?

[dk064]

great post, I just got a 2014 GLXR and the pedal height is insane, will have to check out the height adjustment on the weekend,

cheers

[kronikabis]

Darn - does anyone have this in pdf without the photobucket bs?

[NowForThe5th]

Right click on the image and then "Open link in new tab"

[bjm74]

Great write up!

Question: have fitted it all back together and cannot get the drum back on over the brake pads. Adjuster is wound all the way in and cylinder has been compressed as best as I can get it. Any suggestions or something I am missing? It's not much, maybe just the lip worth that is on the brake drum (1mm or so).

Cheers for any advice

[tofu]

Sorry to revive an old thread but anyone know where i can buy the wave washer and horse shoe clip?