Toyota Celica DIY

This write-up will cover how to replace your rear shoes on 00+ Celica GT’s with Drum Brakes. This was based off the passenger side but the driver side is exactly the same but obviously the parts will be opposite of each other. So it would probably be best to start on the passenger side first since all the pictures shown will be exactly how everything looks on the passenger side, this way you can get a good feel of how everything goes together.

Couple of notes before we begin, when you buy new shoes you will get 4 shoes in a box, two per wheel. They are all the same, so no need to worry about mixing them up or trying to match them to your old ones.

Also your gonna need to check and see if your shoes came with a little dowel pin installed in them already. Note picture X below, you can see I’m not talking about the pin that holds the parking brake lever but this one is smaller and holds the Adjuster Lever Bracket in place. I checked Autozone and Pep Boys and neither came with these pins installed. Also I could not remove my old ones from the shoes. I don’t think removal is possible to be honest. In any case I was able to come up with a work around and it will require the following extra hardware…

1 #8-32 x 1/2″ bolt
3 #8 Washers
1 #8 Nut

These were easily obtained at Home Depot in the hardware section. They come in little green packages.

Tools & Parts Needed +/- a couple

First things first, jack up the car and remove both rear wheels. Once you do that lower the parking brake. Now you cam try removing the drums from the hub. If your lucky they might just slide right off with a little help. If not you will need to stick an M8 x 2″ bolt in this hole below. Also note that there is a similar hole directly across from this one. Just tighten the bolt down to help remove the hub.

Here is what it will look like once the hub is removed.

Take note of the position of the adjuster and springs

Go ahead and remove this lower spring. Use your needle nose pliers or the channel locks.

Now use your channel locks to remove the upper spring.

Now you can use your needle nose pliers to remove the left Shoe Hold-Down Spring. This can be achieved by inserting the pliers as shown below and push inward and twisting until you line the pin up with the slots. You will probably need to use your free hand to reach around the back and hold the pin down so it doesn’t spin.

Next you need to remove this clip in order to release the parking brake lever from the shoe. I just inserted a flat head screw driver and twisted to help spread the clip apart. This clip will probably be a little bent up after removal, just use your pliers to flatten it back out.

Here we can note the dowel pin that I was telling you about when we started. My new shoes didn’t come with them and I was unable to remove them so this is where your #8 bolt and hardware will come in to play.

Now the purpose of this bracket is to keep the adjuster from spinning backwards. You will note that the bracket has a spring attached to it. When you put the nut on your gonna wanna tighten it down just enough so that the nut is tight but you need to make sure that you can freely move the bracket with your hand. So don’t go torquing this nut down tight, just snug it down. I put some blue locktite on the threads just to make sure it doesn’t come loose seeing as how we can’t really tighten it down to tight, this will help insure that the nut doesn’t come loose.

Check to make sure that you can move this bracket up and down without using too much force. It doesn’t need to be super loose but just enough so that it can move freely without any binding.

Now we can start re-installing the shoes. Start with the left one first and install the parking brake lever on it. Make sure to put this clip back on and pinch the legs back together as shown below.

Now go ahead and secure the left shoe back on the drum and install the Shoe Hold-Down Spring.

Now install the adjuster and spring. Also make sure that you turn your adjuster so that you can’t see any threads just like in the picture below. Be sure to note the orientation of spring and the ends of the adjuster. They can be kinda confusing.

Now reinstall the right shoe and secure it with the Shoe Hold-Down Spring.

Now make sure that the top of the shoes are lined up correctly in the wheel cylinder. At this point things probably won’t line up right, what you will need to do is take both hands and put one on each shoe and push INWARD as to squeeze the pistons back into the wheel cylinder.

Now you can go ahead and reinstall this lower spring. Once again take note of the orientation.

Now reinstall the upper spring.

New shoes installed.

Now at this point we need to adjust the parking brake. Get in your car and make sure the parking brake is completely down. I seen some people saying to make sure it’s 3 clicks up and then adjust, but I like my parking brake to be nice and tight, I don’t like having to pull it up all the way before it will start to hold. So I dunno you might wanna play around with it if you like a loose parking brake. Now go back to the drum and use a flat head screwdriver to adjust the nut. You will need to spin the nut UPWARD to adjust. You will hear clicks as your doing this. I slowly counted the clicks that I could hear so that way I could make sure to count the same amount on the other side as to make things nice and even. On my car I counted 40 clicks which got me right where I needed to be. Basically you wanna get the shoes out as far as possible but not far enough that you can’t get the drum back on or that you can feel excessive drag in the drum when you spin it by hand after you reinstall it.

If you go too far and can’t get your hub back on your gonna need to spin the adjuster the other way to get it back down. Only problem is that the adjuster lever that we were messing around with earlier is going to keep you from doing this. What you need to do is with one hand press down on the tab pictured below and at the same time use your flat head to rotate the adjuster DOWNWARD in the opposite direction that you have been to get it to go back down.

After that reinstall the wheels and torque your lugs down. Done! See now don’t you wish you’d gotten a GTS instead?