North American Turbocoupe Organization

Never since I've owned my TC (7 years now) have I ever touched anything brake-related on it. The brakes work fine enough but I don't htink they'd lock up the tires if I laid into them, that's just how weak they've always been though. My rear drums squeek during moderate to heavy braking, so I figure they need new shoes. I plan to order a set of Motorcrafts to put on.

Is there anything I should watch out for while back there doing the shoes? I've never worked on drums before, I know they will be trickier than disk brakes (which I'd say are quite easy). Are there any special tools I need or brake hardware I should replace (there's a $6 drum hardware kit I see on Rockauto)?

Should I also bleed off a good amount of fluid? There's no telling how old my current brake fluid is. I've also never bled brakes before but it can't be that hard...

Swap in an 8.8 and make it "easy"

All you really "need" once you get the wheel off is a pair of needle-nose pliers. That's about all I ever use... well... I use needle-nose vice grips. Get the hardware kit. It'll have all the springs and retainers and crap. If it were me and I didn't know when the last time was that anything back there was replaced, I would just throw in a new pair of adjusters as well since they're pretty cheap.

You're going to need a helper to bleed the rear brakes. It's easy to do with someone to pump the pedal for you. I replaced my fluid last time I did the brakes. Just kept bleeding them until the color changed from "oil brown" to clear. Keep a very close eye on the fluid level in the master cylinder though. You do not want that to run dry.

I use speed bleeders in the front which makes bleeding the front brakes really, really easy with one person, but they don't make them for the rear and those bleeder screws are hella small... 8mm I think.

Oh and just do one side at a time. Maybe take a picture before you start taking anything apart. You may need a reference the first time you put it back together.