You definitely have to loosen the brakes using the star nut inside the slot. Probably trial and error is the only way to figure out which way loosens them but you'll have to do that. I'd assumed you'd already loosened the brakes. You can use a wide blade screwdriver if you don't have a brake tool. When you put the new shoes on it just have the brakes loose enough that you can get the drum back on. They will self-adjust when you are in backing up and hit the brakes. I usually find an area where there's no traffic and drive in reverse while pumping the brakes for a short time.

 

How to do loosen the brakes ? Are you referring to the parking brake ?

I'll give it a shot with a Philips screw driver in the slot to ease the adjust off.

I picked up a brake spring tool at Princess Auto the other day to help with removing and installing the springs.

Thank you for your advise !

 

Not referring to parking brake. Don't do anything to parking brake at this time except to make sure parking brake is off. If your brake pedal goes to the floor you may have an issue with the fluid. Is the master cylinder full? Is there a leak somewhere? If there's a fluid leak I would proceed to take care of it rather than working on the rear brakes.
I was speaking of loosening the brake shoes, not the emergency brake. Stick a flat screwdriver in the slot until you feel the slotted wheel. Turn the wheel using the screwdriver until the brake shoe is loose. You can tell by turning the drum (vehicle in neutral) whether the brake drum is loose. If it's real hard to turn adjust some more. Trial and error will tell you which way loosens it or tightens it. When you get the drum off, if the shoes look fairly thick, make sure the self-adjusters aren't stuck with rust or corrosion, check for fluid around the wheel cylinder to be sure it's not leaking and put drum back on. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOMETHING SOLID HOLDING CAR UP BEFORE WORKING UNDER IT. JACK STANDS OR CONCRETE BLOCKS ON A SOLID FLOOR ARE RECOMMENDED.

 

awesome !

thank you so much for the information !

I'm feeling a lot more confident tackling this project.

I'll report back on how I did this weekend.

 

Since you've not worked on drum brakes before, once you get the drums off pay particular attention to what it looks like before you start taking things off. The brake shoes only go in one way...front and back shoes on same axle are slightly different. be sure you have them in the right order. If you have to, take a picture of the brake with the drum removed, there's several parts in there. Make sure you put them all back in the same place they came out.

 

Well what should have been a straight forward change of my rear wheel cylinders, shoes and springs turned out to be a way bigger job.

The lines running from my wheel cylinders to the rubber hoses on the drivers side where so rust around the connects they snapped when loosing.

So I managed to complete one side, but still have to run a long line from the drivers side wheel cylinder to the other side. Then put the all hardware on the back passenger side.

So I have another weekend to look forward to working on this van. Good thing I did brake line replacement on my old Jetta last year.

Thank you a. palmer jr. for all the info you provided to me on my drum brakes. It was a big help!

One side down and one to go

 

I guess you can look at it this way; you'll now have all new brakes in the back of your van and probably won't have to ever do it again. Much better than just doing some of the job and having to go back and do the rest later.

 

rear drums: WD40 and hit the axle hard with a 48 ounce hammer.