Red Camaro - Rear Brake Cylinders

 

I found some brake fluid inside the left rear wheel of our Camaro recently when I was fitting it with a rim for snow tires. Great. Just Great. I swear, having old cars is like having old pets or young children; you just never know what's going to wrong next.

 

 

I enjoy working on my cars and it saves quite a bit of money too. I only pay a shop to do work if I absolutely can't do it myself or, as is most often the case, I don't have the time. Now, I've never changed a brake cylinder before in my life but not knowing what I was doing has never stopped me from doing anything. So, let's have at it. 

 

 

Turns out drum brakes are quite simple. In theory at least. When you press the brake pedal down, you're forcing hydraulic fluid to push out plungers inside that (leaking) "cylinder" between the blue spring on the left and the green spring on the right. Those plungers push those semi circle pads, or shoes, against a cast iron drum (that I've removed) and through friction, the drum brakes help the car to stop. I say help because on our Red Camaro, like most cars, the front discs do most of the braking. At issue here is that the cylinder is leaking and needs to be replaced.

 

 

Save for a seized up brake line bolt that I promptly rounded off, thank goodness for penetrating fluid and vice grips, this was a straight forward process.

The biggest challenge was bleeding the brakes lines. Apparently, air got into the system when I removed the brake line. Hydraulic systems are closed and any air that gets inside those closed systems will stop those systems from working.  Patience and a second set of hands, actually feet to be exact, and all is good.

 

 

The handsome new cylinder looking quite at home in the left rear brake housing of our Red Camaro. I have to do the other side as well and I'm not looking forward to the possibility of another seized up brake line bolt.

 

 

Our 13 months so far with this almost twenty year old car has been fairly challenging. Helps that we have other cars to use  when something goes wrong. Also helps that I'm pretty good with a wrench. If you're thinking of purchasing an inexpensive old car and using it as a daily driver and you're not good with a set of sockets, you might want to think twice about it. Or find a good, cheap mechanic.

 

There has been a fair amount of drama around the Blizzacks but I'll save that to blog about once the real life ordeal is settled. Stay tuned.