Well.. I ordered new brake shoes for my park (hand) brake system inside the rear rotors and started studying all I can find about this procedure but the more I read about it the more I start to be convinced I could fail on this job.
Removing the callipers and the rotors is not so hard, but then I need to remove the "axle head" (or what its called?) and that seems to be not so easy..
After that I get to disassemble and assemble the complicated brake system with all kinds of small springs and stuff which undoubtedly can only be removed and replaced by special tools I bet...
Besides I have bad memories working with tiny springs, they tend to launch themselves from under my fingers never to be found again.

Who has completed this job? Is it as hard as I think?
I'm thinking about bringing the car to the mechanics for this job

 

These drum-brakes are no different than most cars in the 1970s when all-drum brakes were common. The only slight difference is that the drum and disc are combined. If you've removed the calipers and the disc-drum, you've already done the hardest part. Some have difficulty removing the two long springs holding the two shoes together. The dodge here is to thread some strong cord under the spring end and wrap the cord round your hand to give it a strong pull. The little fastners/locators holding the shoes up against the back-plate usually need a half-twist to get them off the holding spindles/retainers. The presence of the hub does make this job a bit ticklish.
You need to clean all the dust and general crud/rust off everything, and ensure the cylindrical adjuster between the shoe-ends works properly. If you grease anything, only a licking. As the brakes get very hot, you don't want any grease melting and getting on the shoes! See that the adjuster is at minimum so you can get the disc-drum back on. You may have to "tap" the shoes sideways with a piece of wood to help get the disc drum back on. Making sure the disc-drum is on properly, you can the do the adjustment roughly, backing off from 'hard-on' so the drum will rotate freely. Fine adjustment is done with the wheel back on through the hole-slot in the backplate with a suitable screwdriver, as the wheel/lugnuts hold the disc-drum very firmly onto the hub.

Alternatively, you could put your hand in your pocket and pay a mechanic to do it. It's never been a job I've particularly looked forward to...

Leedsman.

 

Its nearly impossible to replace without removing the hub I read. But your tips sound good, maybe I'll give it a try and if I fail I re-assemble what I did so far and go to the mechanic, although my pockets are pretty empty at the moment

 

Most hubs are held on by a "castle-nut" being secured by a split pin/cotter pin, and this can be used to adjust the taper-roller bearing. When re-fitting, you tighten the nut until you can hear and feel a bind, then back-off until clear. Re-fit cotter pin. There may be individual differences with Chrysler.

Leedsman.

 

If you can't get a quick adjustment on the cables, 9/10 its seized mechanical parts in the small drum-in-hat style brake [shoes are marked indicating which side they belong on] shoes / disk. Lubrication & maintenance over the years is usually between zero & poor. Busy fitters at the point of servicing will change shoes and parts but never clean out the build up of brake dust / rust / salt that over the years often leads to seized parts, particularly the articulating cam. I did mine recently and had to use 'heat' to free the articulating lever / cam [where it comes through the backplate] and a good helping of copperslip to try to keep it free, and I borrowed a fully equipped 'test station' with a 4 wheel rolling brake tester and still struggled to get the left & right balanced with each other by %. They are the worst design I've ever seen in 70 years of drum brakes. So bad that Chrysler have a bulletin out on the poor design.

All shoes have small parts sets that are clogged with rust & shoe dust after only one winter. The design fault allows ingress of salt and snow each winter adding to the mix. My advice is do / replace the small parts. The small parts should last 20+ years, the size of the hole on the backplate and poor diligence at service level suggests the small parts would need changing and a good 'lashing' with copperslip to protect them at about 5 winters.

 

I took a quick look in the drum of the rotor and examined the mechanics of the park brake.
Apart from the completely worn shoes and some brake dust, the brake mechanics all seem relatively clean, lubricated and well functioning to me.
That design flaw you are talking about, is that about the full drum brakes or also for the drum-in-rotor brakes of my 2002 GV? Because the drum seems well protected against environmental cluttering of filth and salt to me, theres rubber plugs in all the holes as far as I can see..

I will try to get the job done without the small parts bag, otherwise I have to wait for that order to arrive again

 

Hi
I used a pair of side-cutters CAREFULLY to remove/re-fit the springs-----it worked very well for me-----------------no need to remove the hub------

----to adjust the brakes, I jacked up BOTH wheels and adjusted them one click at a time alternating between the two wheels--pulling the brake lever to centralise the shoes and check adjustment------takes time and patience but I got an MOT
Nigel

 

Boys Boys none of you's mentioned about fitting the pain in the a**e handbrake cable here, this is a job on its own. I usually fit handbrake cable to the required shoe first. Then tie the two shoes together with their springs while holding them apart. This all behind hub which is still in place. Then comes job of sliding then into bottom which is easy. One is slid into possition at top and other sprung over which requires a bit of a pull. Hub bearings nowadays are normally a self contained bearing of one outer housing containing a bearing either side and a predetermined spacer between that sets the clearance after torqueing up nut. I haven't checked the CD of what kind of bearing is fitted in the Voyager hub but no doubt I'll not have the socket to fit the nut anyway.

 

To make things more clearly: this is exactly how it looks like on my version and this is what Chrysler says I should do

 

Well, there you go! Get to it...

Leedsman.

Damn it. It needs a special tool. Why do they always need a special tool?