Cheers TC.
It's been a garagesome weekend.
Yesterday morning I put the trolley jack under the rear diff and lifted the R Send, An axle stand under the offending wheel, dropped the jack to lock the other wheel and pulled the drum back off via the 2 bolt method. Lets strip the whole lot. Strip out the retaining spring that hold the shoes to the back plate and the springs that link the two shoes together. Both shoes off. Give the back plate a bit of a clean to remove corrosion and and brake crap ( hold breath ! ) Rebuild the whole shabang, slowly, carefully not rushing and no self inflicted pressure ( like the first time when I was so firkin annoyed with myself ) Now I know the top half of auto adjuster is fully retracted and its other half at the bottom of the drum is Def in it's correct location.
Does the drum fit ? Yes. Fit the drum. Does the handbrake work? No. But at least the brake is free. Wheel on, lower her back to 4 wheels can I now reverse her out of the garage ? After moving a large motorbike, a step ladder, various other stuff and a car from the drive, I am finally able to reverse the GV out off the garage, all be it with some difficulty as I suspect my attempt at adjusting the handbrake cable ( via the adjuster on the handbrake lever under the rear of the centre console) is now causing the good side of the handbrake to drag but I don't care, I'm just so glad she's mobile ish.
I turned her around and delicately reversed her back into the garage, I need to fit the little stainless steel shim that I lost when working on the front brakes then found when clearing the floor to get the car out of the garage. With the GV back in the garage it's time to carry on with Saturday.
Rationalising the progress overnight, I now have a movable car but with no handbrake on the problem side, and probably not much footbrake but I can't confirm that by myself.
Sunday dawns bright and sunny if a little nippy, heck if I'd known this was the weather I wouldn't have bothered putting the car in the garage. OK Jack up the front, wheel off, fit the brake pad slider shimmy thing, drop her back onto her wheels. The bright sunshine makes me feel confident and confirms my desire from my overnight thoughts, lets get her back on the drive and gain some space to have another look at this darn rear brake. With more space outside it should be a lot quicker.
Outside, jack the R send up up again, support the problem side, pull the wheel and the drum. Using a flat driver in the teeth of the adjuster crank it open to push the shoes outwards, several trial fittings later I can ease the drum on and off and with the handbrake on I cant turn the drum. Now we're getting there. Did I let any air into the system whilst dribbling fluid from the slave cylinder ? Lets give it a bleed to confirm,no air that I can detect but at least I have the mental security that I've eliminated the possibility. Refit the wheel, with the handbrake on its easy to turn the wheel, the extra leverage is overcoming the brake. OK, once more, wheel off, drum off, ratchet the adjuster some more. Drum on, wheel on, handbrake on, Can't turn the wheel. Now we're def making progress.
I actually think we can finally call this, fingers crossed, success. I'll speak to my MOT garage tomorrow to see if it can be squeezed into their schedule.
Now on this bright autumnal afternoon I feel the need for celebration, Mrs Mabo and myself took a stroll down to our local Tavern to imbibe some fine quality falling down water.
This evening I've logged in to update and found TC's video above, I've not watched it yet but that looks like a later GV. thanks for digging the video out TC and for caring enough to source the vid. I owe you a pint.
TC, at risk of sounding ungrateful but is that guy in the vid really annoying ? I guess if your an absolute beginner it might be useful. I've spent most of my life whacking drums with a steel hammer and have yet to crack one. Hitting it with a rubber mallet has it's place but tickling it the way he did has no effect what so ever and is not representative of the real world, And who uses a Toyota part to pull a Suzuki drum ? A recommendation of 2 x 8mm bolts would have been more useful.
This not to critisize you, any one that's followed this thread will understand how frustrating it's been and I am truly grateful that anyone on a Ford Cougar forum cares enough to read my post, so thanks again to you for reading and caring enough to do what I haven't and search vid on the subject.