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got rear drum brakes? done your rear struts? please weigh in.

B

bxd20

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 25, 2000
Messages
110
Location
Cleveland, OH, USA
I'm doing rear struts on a friends 96 4 cyl with rear drum brakes. The HOW-TO says to undo the brake clips. No mention of disconnecting the brake line.

This car's brake line is rusty in spots, I need to be as gentle as possible. For those of you that have done this job, did you disconnect:

1. the clip on the side of the strut?
2. the clip on the inside fenderwell?
3. the clip by the wheel cylinder?

All of em? one or two of them?

Any tips would be appreciated. I want to make sure the rubber portion of the brake line is all that has to flex, and nothing breaks.

Thanks!
 
Sorry if this is a stupid question, does it just pull straight out of that clip towards me? Or do I need to squeeze the clip with pliers or anything?

SORRY! Probably a dumb question but I only had a minute to look @ it this morning before going to work. THANKS again guys!
 
There is a special tool I've seen for getting those clips to slide out, but I've just grabbed it with pliers and pull away from the strut.
 
done

done

Got them done Friday night. Yea I pretty much unbent the mounting tab slightly, to make it a bit wider, then slid out the bracket. Reverse on installation, making sure it's pinched tight, and then I stuck a zip tie through the whole on the bracket and around the strut tab just as an extra precaution.

I've done struts before, though not on Contours, and it took me about 2 hours per side for the rear. Now that I've done it once I could probably do it an hour per side.
 
on countours does the backseat have to come out to get to the top of the mounting bolts or are they just in the trunk. I've had to do a lexus before and i had to remove the back seat. lol/
 
the mounting bolts for the rear struts are in the strut tower and are accessed from outside the car. there are 2 10mm bolts up top.
 
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