First gen rear drum brake springs

[Wedgewood64]

Hello all,

Renewing my brake springs while I'm in there doing the wheel cylinders. The kit I got from the local supplier looks fine for the front, but for the rear, contains different length shoe return springs, whereas the ones I took off were identical. In the photo of my new kit, it's the long blue ones that match the old ones. I note that the set that CARS stocks seems to be the same as the one I bought. So: one length fore, one aft? Buy another kit so as to get another pair of long ones? Also, while we're at it, why are there 2 different length hold-down springs??

Any pointers appreciated!

[Wedgewood64]

correction: long RED ones are like the ones I took off.

[mhnova65]

Wedgewood,

The kit you purchased for your rear brakes is correct as the front and rear hardware is slightly different due to a slight difference in the way the spring mounts are set up for the front and rear drums. The front brakes have the same length spring for both shoes. The rear brake uses one of those springs however the return spring for the front shoe is much longer.

A picture is worth a 1000 words. Here is a pic of both the front and rear brakes in which you can see the difference.

Mark

[Wedgewood64]

Ah ha, mystery solved, including for the hold-down springs: on my car at some point s.o. removed the adjuster arms. So on the rear, I don't have that little adjuster-arm wire thingy that the blue spring attaches to. And then the shorter hold-down spring obviously goes on the shoe w/the adjuster arm. At least I know where I stand. Thanks Mark. Beautiful work, BTW.