Broken Handbrake Shoe

[PDB]

Hello all,

New member here. Here goes.

I have recently bought a 2003 E85 3.0. Knowing the car needed a bit of work didn't matter to me, I was looking forward to getting back to tinkering having not done any since my old 309 GTI.

Anyhoo,

I've begun a brake change (disks and pads and erm.... a slight caliper colour change ) and everything was going fine on wheels 1,2 and 3 but when I took off the rear nearside this happened:





So I guess I need a new one! My question to you guys is do you think it will be safe to remove all the shoe parts and drive for a short while until the replacement parts arrive?

I don't know what the round plate is behind the wheel hub but I guess the spring thing should be attached to it. Anyone know what that part is called and where I could get one from by any chance?

Thanks in advance, Pete.

 

[Smartbear]

That's normally called a brake plate
Rob

 

[Ewazix]

AS with most BMW's it requires removal of the hub to get the rear back plate off/on which is a PITA and requires pullers etc. The main no-no is applying pressure to the inner race of the wheel bearing which will destroy it so careful use of drifts on the OUTER only may save having to replace the bearing, although if you have some miles on the clock it might be worth replacing the bearing anyway.

You can physically drive with the rear handbrake shoes removed but it would obviously be 'unroadworthy' per the book. Just dont park on a hill without being in gear and using the old school block of wood

 

[PDB]

Thanks for the quick reply guys. Will remove the shoe so I can at least drive it while I get the new parts. Will update as I go.

 

[maxman]

The shoe retainer is held in place by pushing pin through back plate slot and twisting.Its a bit of a fiddle,taper nose pliers are a help.

 

[PDB]

Evening all. I've seen guides which tell me to fiddle with the handbrake cable pulley under the gear gator. Is this absolutely necessary before I remove the HB shoes and back plate?

 

[MJJamieson]

Yep, you need a new backplate which is a lot of work to replace. You need to remove the hub nut and remove the driveshaft. Then you need remove the hub by screwing long m12 bolts through the wheel bolts to withdraw. Then there's a large circlip to take out. The wheel bearing must be replaced and you need a hub bearing puller to remove. When reassembling the driveshaft can be a pig to get back in then you need a good torque wrench when refitting the nut. An awful lot of work to replace a backplate!!!

And I know cause I've done all four!!!!

 

[PDB]

MJJ - bugger, that sounds like a lot of cups-o-t

Thanks for the info.

Seen some posts on flattening back the pulled hole. I'm not hopeful! Will have a crack at the weekend.

 

[Kamuela]

Setting aside the question, what design moron would think of doing it this way? I can think of a few ways to avoid pulling the hub, etc. which seems totally unnecessary for such a trivial purpose.

1. a dab with a wire welder on the now-rounded oval hole and maybe a cleanup with a dremel will fix it. For the price of having the dealer do the work, you can buy the wire welder, take a few classes, and have money left over, and have the joy of fixing them for your friends.
2. I bet I could figure out how to make a two-piece backplate from yours and one more with a good hole. I bet you can, too.
3. I once needed a washer with an oval hole. I heated a washer, held it loosely with vice grips (so it wouldn't buckle) and squeezed it in a vice. Voila! not-round hole, just the thing to put behind your buggered hole and catch the knobs on the spring holder.
4. You wouldn't have to be very creative with nuts and bolts to replace the funky nail-looking shaft with something threaded that screws in to a flat nut and maybe a washer to spread the load, behind the backing plate. It looks like there's plenty of room back there if you're creative with ways to hold the nut to get it started. Hint; a magnetic retrieval tool should work fine.
5. Expanding, threaded rivet. there are such things; they look like pop rivets but have a threaded center. Clean up the hole, pop in the expanding rivet, use a screw to hold the spring against the brake shoe. Or for that matter, an ordinary pop rivet and a tap to thread the center hole after it's popped in place, run a screw into that. There need not be a lot of stress on the screw, it just needs to be snug enough that the brake shoe doesn't rattle and flop around.
6. You don't actually need a complete circular piece to catch the knobs, you can get away with a fork-shaped piece that slides past the knobs from behind. I'm thinking something made of thin steel with a slot the exact width of the shaft, a slight bend in both ends so it stays in place and can be gripped to install, slide it down behind the little sticky-out knobs. Done. If you can't find the threaded rivets, this would be by far the simplest. I believe I've seen such a piece used for something else hardware, but can't think right now exactly where.

 

[PDB]

The holes for the pin flattened back into position! I tapped the erupted hole with a punch and it went back into shape! Didn't expect that.

However...

With my pulling and tugging on the cable to get it back into the expander i think i've stretched it. Its not snapped because i can pull the handbrake and the cable moves but theres no tension on it.

This one i may take to indi. Need to spend some time with the Mrs!

 

[PDB]

Kamuela thanks for all those ideas btw

 

[MJJamieson]

Adjusting the handbrake is a PITA, you need to lock the auto adjuster then adjust each wheel then reengage.

 

[Ewazix]

If you don't mind a bodged part being on your car and cant face the proper replacement procedure this is one answer. It involves cutting a slot in the old and new backplates. It's not the right way to do it and I've now idea how it works in reality but worth a read.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/BMW-3-Series-E46/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement.htm

 

[Nictrix]

If you don't mind a bodged part being on your car and cant face the proper replacement procedure this is one answer. It involves cutting a slot in the old and new backplates. It's not the right way to do it and I've now idea how it works in reality but worth a read.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/BMW-3-Series-E46/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement.htm

That seems the best and most logical way to do it especially with the cost of replacing parts and tools required to do it properly. The oem part should just be made that way. There is plenty of support for the plate where the bolts attach it so shouldn't be any different to an uncut one.

 

[Ewazix]

If you don't mind a bodged part being on your car and cant face the proper replacement procedure this is one answer. It involves cutting a slot in the old and new backplates. It's not the right way to do it and I've now idea how it works in reality but worth a read.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/BMW-3-Series-E46/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement.htm

That seems the best and most logical way to do it especially with the cost of replacing parts and tools required to do it properly. The oem part should just be made that way. There is plenty of support for the plate where the bolts attach it so shouldn't be any different to an uncut one.

I can't see any huge risks to following the Pelican cut-slot method, as they say more water and grit can get up around the disc but it must be worth a try given how cheap a backplate is compared to the labour charges if you haven't got the tools to do it per TIS. Maybe post a few shots showing how it went if you do it

 

[Mr_E85Bim]

If you don't mind a bodged part being on your car and cant face the proper replacement procedure this is one answer. It involves cutting a slot in the old and new backplates. It's not the right way to do it and I've now idea how it works in reality but worth a read.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/BMW-3-Series-E46/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement/97-BRAKES-Parking_Brake_Shoe_Backing_Plate_Replacement.htm

Think I found a video of the procedure:
https://youtu.be/vl3zOAfBN2U