# Hints, tips or tricks for working on a _ _ _ _ _...



## brenndatomu (Jun 4, 2013)

Hey guys, I wanted to pass along a trick I found last night that worked great, and I thought y'all probably have a bunch of tricks up your sleeves too, so I started this thread to share 'em.

Mine is for removing the rear brake drums on a 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Ford Taurus or same years of Mercury Sable. I heard the Ford Windstar is also the same setup, probably would work for others too.
Anyways, the slot in the backing plate to release to brake adjuster is right behind the struts making it *VERY* difficult/impossible to release the detent and turn the adjuster at the same time (one or the other isn't too bad, but we all know you have to do both at the same time to back off the adjuster). I worked for two hours without getting even close to getting the adjuster to loosen (I did tighten it some though, enough to prevent me from driving the car at all now! :bang I was just _checking_ the brakes after all, I didn't _really_ think there was a problem, it's just with almost 200k miles on the car, and never having had the rear brake drums off in the 5 yrs I've had the car, I figured that I should at least _check_ 'em. But living in the rust belt, there was a HUGE rust lip on the drum behind the pads and I knew the drum was NOT coming off over the pads, not in one piece anyways.

So I called my buddy that works at a local independent repair shop for advise, he says, "yeah, those are a real bear, just gotta keep working at it, you'll get it eventually" I'm thinking, if I had it up on a lift and could actually SEE what I'm doing, maybe. But after 2 hours of fighting it, I was livid, I decided to go in the house for the night before I did something I'd likely regret today. After getting some dinner in me, calming down a little, I got online to try to find some tips.
There was a Ford tech on Utube that had a slick little tool he had invented and was selling, I didn't wanna wait on it since that means driving the gas guzzling wood hauler to work for a week or so. Then there was someone who showed how he _eventually _got his off with a bent up coat hanger, sounds like more frustration to me! One that seemed like a good possibility, was from another Ford tech, he said to knock out a wheel stud, go in through the empty stud hole. Worked great!

Here's the details, turn the drum so a stud is in the 9:00 position (as you face the drum) for the drivers side (America anyways) and the 3:00 position for the passenger side. Put a nut on said studs, flush with the end of the threads (to protect the threads) then tap the stud in until it comes loose from the hub. Now spin the nut off and finagle the stud back into the brake drum. Turn the drum so the empty hole is over the adjuster (it lines up perfectly!) back the adjuster off, remove the drum, easy-peasy! 

Once the drum is off you can reinstall the stud, and make sure you grind off that dagum lip off the drum, if you are gonna reuse them anyways. Pulling the drums once a year or so to clean things up will prevent that lip from buliding up to the point mine did, head this whole issue off at the pass so to speak. BTW, my brakes were fine so this whole ordeal was just an education I guess!    Hope this one helps somebody!

What kind of ideas you guys got??? Anything mechanically related flys....


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## brenndatomu (Jul 19, 2013)

Found another one for y'alls. Aluminum foil to clean rusty chrome (real chrome, not this shiny plastic crap they're makin now). I bought a 1972 Schwinn Collegiate bicycle to restore for my wife, was looking up some info on workin on these old bikes, stumbled across this tip, tried it and it works well. Just wad up some aluminum foil, dip in water (I found WD-40 or polishing compound works too) and buff away. Back and forth, not in circles. Seems to work just as well or maybe better than #0000 steel wool, cheaper, easier to hold on to, can be molded into custom shapes, etc, etc. 
Now go polish something!


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