First I parked the monty on a flat spot at the Grasscat Compound.
I then put bricks on the front tires to stop them from rolling.
I then slightly loosened all the rear bolts just a couple of turns each.
We then raised the rear end up high enough to put a couple of jack stands under the rear axles.
Next we removed the rear tires and the brake drums (be sure your parking brake is off or you won't get the drums off) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />
To remove the drums there are a couple of bolt holes in the drum (6mm x 1.5 bolts?). You can insert a pair of bolts into these holes and it makes the drum removal a bit easier than using a mallet/hammer to knock them off.
After the removal here's what we found inside the passenger side drum.
Notice the bubbled up paint in this picture which was caused by the leaking brake fluid. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
Next we removed the two retaining springs on each brake shoe (number 1 in the 1st picture above).
Next we removed the top and bottom springs using a pair of needle nose vice grips (required to make the job 100% easier).
Afterwards the entire internal assembly came out. We simply laid them on a work table to fully disassemble, clean, and reassemble.
While Michael worked on the brake assembly I worked on removing the brake cylinder. I started by removing the brake lines in the back. You can see the passenger side line removed here.
![[Linked Image]](http://pics.montypics.com/off-roader/2008-12-13/1229243178_snv11545cs.jpg)
You can also see the brake bleeding nipple.
The driver side has 2 lines instead of the nipple. This way you only need to bleed the brake on the passenger side and it bleeds the driver side brake as well.
The removal of the lines required a 10mm open end wrench. Don't use an adjustable wrench in order to minimize the possibility of rounding off the bolt.
Once the lines are disconnected you can unbolt the cylinder from the brake assembly via the 12mm bolt on each side of the cylinder.
Installation of the new cylinders is the same process just backwards. The passenger side one will again have the one brake line hole and a bleeder nipple while the driver side one will have 2 brake line holes.
Reassembly of the brake shoes can be quite tricky. The first thing to do is re-install the side springs into the brake housing.
First insert the rod into the while in the back of the housing and through the hole in one of the shoes.
Next place a inner (nickel sized) spring retaining clip onto the rod.
Next place the spring onto the rod.
Last (using the needle nose vice grips) place the final retaining clip onto the rod, compressing the spring and with a 1/4 turn set the assembly in place.
This process is alot trickier than it sounds so have some patience.
Also you'll need to do it 4x. Once for each shoe (2 shoes per side) so hopefully by the 4th one you'll have it down... we did.
After the retaining springs are in place the brake shoes should be pretty close to being properly lined up.
tbc...