88 Festiva Rear Brake Problems

[88Festy]

Today I was in an epic battle with the rear brakes on my festiva. After a 7 hour ordeal, I still don't know what is wrong. I used the Haynes manual, and replaced the shoes and had the drums turned. Then, as the manual says, I was testing the brakes before I reassembled the drum, and as I was pumping the brakes, the brake cylinder popped and started spraying brake fluid everywhere.

Well, I thought the cylinder was bad, so I replaced both sides. Then, I took it for a test drive, and all of a sudden there is brake fluid all over again. After a quick disassemble, I noticed the new cylinder had done the same thing. I thought it could be a faulty cylinder again, so I took another quick trip to the parts store and again replaced the cylinder.

This time, I tried testing the brakes, and noticed when I stomped on the brake, the left side of the cylinder would push completely out, spraying fluid all over. I don't know why this is happening. If I just press normal, they seem to work fine. But when I press hard, it breaks.

Any ideas?

[FB71]

1st: never fully depress the brake pedal with drum off. it will eject the piston from the wheel cylinder because the drum is not in place to limit travel. the Haynes manual is retarded.

2nd: did the cylinder eject the piston with the drum on at any time? if so, then the adjuster may not have been in the proper position, allowing the piston to 'sidestep' the shoe, allowing it to eject.

3rd: could be the wrong cylinder. some parts houses employ serious retards (not literally) who wouldn't know a wheel cylinder from the wheel of fortune. just because you got two of the same in a row, doesn't mean they're giving you the correct one for you application. compare it to the original, see if it looks similar.

[88Festy]

One time I was trying to set the self-adjuster (backing and braking), and it ejected once. I took the whole thing apart and saw the same thing as before. It may be something as simple as having set my adjuster wrong. The Haynes wasn't very succinct in it's description of how to reset the adjuster. I don't think it was the cylinder though. The passenger side one, which was the exact same part, works fine.

I'm just worried that if I put it all back together and have to make a quick stop that the cylinder would eject and I'd end up destroying my Festy.

I'm also going to replace all the hardware (springs, hold down clamps, retaining pins) today, so hopefully that may help too.

How do you properly reset the adjuster? This may be all I have to do. Thanks a lot for the advice!