teke184

i bought my gfs old car as a beater (free). hasn't been driven more than a few blocks since october.

sat through a hurricane (wilma) and sat in about 6-8" of salt water. got in it to drive it today and had a very stiff brake pedal. tried a "quick stop" to see how bad they were and ...they were bad.

figured the brakes were corroded up from the salt (typical). walked by it an hour later and noticed a puddle of brake fluid in front of the rear wheel, coming from the brake line runnig to the back axle.

not sure if it just blew a line and that's why i had no pedal or if my "stop test" put too much pressure on the line (with stuck brakes) and blew it.

gonna try fixing the line and bleeding the brakes. but if that's not it and the brake drums themselves are shot.

how much is a typical rebuild? i'm assuming i'd need everthing...pistons (is that what they are called on drums?) and pads, maybe drums.

never worked on drums before.
car is an 89 Buick LaSabre

Kataklysm

They are called wheel cylinders, they basically are pistons though. You can probably machine the drums depending on how bad they are. Shoes and a spring kit shouldn't run you to much and a wheel cylinder isn't much either, I'd say (depending on what type of parts you use) $50 a side maybe. If you turn the drums then I don't know how much more it would run you, usually the same amount as to machine a rotor.

Make sure you do 1 side at a time because if you take them both apart theres a good chance you'll forget how they go back together. Drums can really suck. A drum brake tool kit can come in handy when removing the springs.

moparman

It's probably the wheel cylinder instead of a line that's leaking. Usually you can either buy a complete wheel cylinder, or a kit to rebuild the existing cylinder. If you want to rebuild, keep in mind you need to hone the cylinder.

teke184

thanks guys.

turns out i blew one of the hard lines, just before it crosses over under the car to go to the passenger side (lines come down the driver side).

gonna try to replace it and see if that fixes the problem...hopefully another line doesn't blow.

i think the line went as soon as i left the driveway, so it was a leak that was causing the bad pedal feel...not locked up brakes.


PS...

forgot there was a "brakes" forum now...so confusing sometimes