Update :

I replaced both of mine... the passenger side took about an hour, the driver side (after the experience with the other) about 20 min.

Here's my tip:

1) I used 2 pieces of kite string per spring to tie the hold down springs up as noted before (excellent suggestion by the way). It'll come out cockeyed because of the spring pitch, but that's ok. Get it as compressed as you can.

2) Put the adjuster and lower spring on the new shoes and place the shoes over the hold down dealies (the "mushroom" stud?) . This will take some needle nose and some swearing. One of the mushroom studs will be captive , held by the backing plate's interference with the axle bracket. The other one will want to fall out the back .

3) Get a screwdriver and pry the shoe away from it's resting positing, with enough clearance to fit the compressed spring in .... needle nose (straight and angle tips) are your friend.

4) Now that you have the spring over the flopping around mushroom stud, push the mushroom stud from the back, or , in the case of the captive one, pull with needle nose , so the stud is fully extended outward...

5) Before your release tension on the needlenose, or your finger, pushing the mushroom stud out , gently PULL the shoe you're working on , away from the hub...outward, (parallel to the side of the car) so that the shoe pinches the mushroom stud and keeps it from flopping back out. This will place the stud at an angle, but no matter...keep tension on it.

6) Now, use your needlenose and some of your favorite swear words , to compress the spring and twist the hold down washer over the head of the mushroom stud. If you keep pinching the stud gently with outward pressure of the shoe to keep the mushroom stud from moving , this is remarkably easy to do . It really helps if you have a set of long handle , angled needlenose. Even (PHEW!!!!) a cheapie China Freight version will work for this.

7) Cut the string holding the springs under compression.

8) Pat yourself on the back.

The last shoe I did like this (#4) took me only about 5 min to fit... amazingly quick. My access holes have not been drilled and the job looked WAY more difficult than it turned out to be. It took far longer with wire brush, simple green and water / compressed air , to clean the inside of the brake area than to actually fit the shoes.


The last step is to fit the upper spring, which is a bit of a pig to do. I sacrificed a cheap screwdriver ...slotted the blade with a fiber wheel in a Dremel (as was posted above!) and used that to get the spring where it needed to go. This too took some special words.

Thanks to all who helped in the above notes... it's great to get this repair done.

John

 

Done!!! Dental floss, hot glue, barbecue lighter, 2 needle nose-one locking, Sharpie, modified screwdriver, cuss words and patience.

Thanks to all for their help and input.

Thanks to Muskegon Brake for several parts shipments!

Gary