Any one replace the parking brake shoes on a 4th gen?

[MFreund]

I recently had the 3rd member rebuilt and need some pointers or tool ideas to get the springs that hold the shoes to the backing plate?

I can get all the mechanism aligned and springs hooked up but can't get the springs to fit between the hub and shoes. Are there any special tools, my fingers won't fit and I am getting frustrated. I looked on youtube, but the one I found have about 2x as much room between the shoes and hub as mine does.

 

[fdbyrne]

I assembled the spring sandwiched between the two discs and held it in a compressed state with a pair of very, very small zip ties. I cut most of the extra zip tie off but left enough on to be able to grab it with a set of needle nose pliers. While they were compressed it was easy to get them in place on the pins.

Once they were in place i grabbed the zip tie with the pliers and then hit the ties with a propane torch. They burst almost immediately, the springs extended, and I had what was left of the zip tie in the pliers so it didn't fall down into the mechanism anywhere.

I tried other ways to do it for hours. It took less than a minute per spring once I used the zip ties to compress the springs. Only the smallest zip ties will work. Walmart and O'Reilly both carry them.

 

[MFreund]

Thank you, that is the kind of ideas I am looking for.