DougFromBaltimore
Member
I’ve been rebuilding the brake system on my 1964 Amphicar, with rebuilt brake shoes, wheel cylinders, and master cylinder, and new flex and hard lines. A challenge was removing and refitting the shoes and springs, especially in the rear. The manual, and many posts, suggest removing the hubs. The front hubs come right off, and it’s a good time to check, clean, and repack the bearings. The rear hub requires a substantial wheel puller. But I came up with a very easy method to replace the rear shoes without removing the hubs. I haven’t seen this described before, so perhaps this will be helpful to others.
To easily remove and reinstall brake shoes in the back, take out the wheel cylinder. I was rebuilding my wheel cylinders – so removal and bleeding the lines was a part of my process. With the wheel cylinder still in place, I had no difficulty popping off the ends of the springs, and removing the metal tabs on the bottom of the brake shoes from the wheel cylinder. I was careful, and did not damage the rubber dust caps. With the tabs out, the wheel cylinder can snake out the bottom. Then pop off the springs, and all the pieces come loose. When reassembling, having the wheel cylinder out provides room and slack to reattach the e-brake cable to the rear shoe, install the lever plate, and reattach the springs. It is still a time-consuming process, with a lot of fiddling to get everything attached and lined up.
A tip on reattaching the spring – rear or front wheels. Insert the hooks at the end of the springs into their holes in the shoes. As you do them, one by one, clip a small vice-grip on to the end so that it does not slip out. This makes it easy to keep everything attached and in position as you get the metal tabs on the shoes into the wheel cylinders, and the opposite ends levered into their slots. See the photo below. It’s a good excuse to purchase four inexpensive small vice-grips, if you don’t have them. I also used a brake spring screwdriver, with some notches that help to guide the ends of the spring into their slots (photos, below).
Another tip – I made a spreader to push the shoes apart at key times during installation of the new shoes. I used an inexpensive Harbor Freight clamp, and turned around the ends so they would push, instead of clamp. It was helpful. See the attached photo.
To easily remove and reinstall brake shoes in the back, take out the wheel cylinder. I was rebuilding my wheel cylinders – so removal and bleeding the lines was a part of my process. With the wheel cylinder still in place, I had no difficulty popping off the ends of the springs, and removing the metal tabs on the bottom of the brake shoes from the wheel cylinder. I was careful, and did not damage the rubber dust caps. With the tabs out, the wheel cylinder can snake out the bottom. Then pop off the springs, and all the pieces come loose. When reassembling, having the wheel cylinder out provides room and slack to reattach the e-brake cable to the rear shoe, install the lever plate, and reattach the springs. It is still a time-consuming process, with a lot of fiddling to get everything attached and lined up.
A tip on reattaching the spring – rear or front wheels. Insert the hooks at the end of the springs into their holes in the shoes. As you do them, one by one, clip a small vice-grip on to the end so that it does not slip out. This makes it easy to keep everything attached and in position as you get the metal tabs on the shoes into the wheel cylinders, and the opposite ends levered into their slots. See the photo below. It’s a good excuse to purchase four inexpensive small vice-grips, if you don’t have them. I also used a brake spring screwdriver, with some notches that help to guide the ends of the spring into their slots (photos, below).
Another tip – I made a spreader to push the shoes apart at key times during installation of the new shoes. I used an inexpensive Harbor Freight clamp, and turned around the ends so they would push, instead of clamp. It was helpful. See the attached photo.
