Warning: working on brakes? Don't do this!

[Yarflana]

Working on the rear brakes yesterday and while finishing up the reassembly on the passenger side rear, I put on the drum and decided to press the brake pedal a bit to ensure I had the e-brake and everything adjusted right.

Sounds fine right?

Well, I forgot that when reassembling the passenger side brakes that I had removed the drum from the driver's side which was still assembled just for a picture of what everything had to look like, but I DID NOT PUT THE DRUM BACK ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE WHEN PRESSING THE BRAKE PEDAL AND BLEW OUT THE CYNLINDER (SQUISH, SQUISH SQUISH).

So I of course had to replace the brake cylinder since the seals were blown out.

I am sure some of you could have rebuilt it there on the spot, but for $20 for a new one, it was worth it just to replace it.

Oh, also, here is a quick tip in case you ever do your own brakes on the drums again. Use some clamps with rubber grips to hold the shoes in place when reassembling...it makes doing it all SO MUCH EASIER! I had some 12" Sears Craftsman clamps with red rubber grips and they are the squeeze kind so you can micro adjust both ways.

I will tell you if I ever get rid of this Yaris...I will vow to never buy another car with any drum brakes again!