Reusing old used brake parts? Bad idea?

Hey guys,

  A few weeks ago I noticed a strange sound from the rear brakes of my 79 RX-7 GS, and the parking brake was also pulling up much higher than usual. Also the pedal wasn't as firm up high as it had been. Clearly something was amiss. Well finally yesterday afternoon I got the rear up in the air, and pulled the wheels off. I started on the passengers side, and adjusted the brake shoes as they are non-self adjusting. Nothing seemed amiss on that side, and the adjustment wasn't really even needed. I removed the drum, and it looked fine inside.

Moved over to the drivers side, and found the shoes were smoked, and came apart, and the lower spring was detached. I also noticed one of the boots on the cylinder was torn, and falling off. I took it all apart, and cleaned up the mess(no leaking fluid). I went up to my parts cache in the storage loft of my garage, and found a used boot for the cylinder, and some old, good condition shoes I had saved from another RX-7 I parted out. I installed them, and adjusted the brakes. Put the wheels back on, and took the car for a spin. The brakes felt awesome again! The parking brake was normal feeling again, as well.

 Was this a bad idea to use old shoes? Would you guys have done this, or am I a complete idiot? Should I change the other side as well? FYI the drums on this car are amazingly small. Then again the car is small, and light weight, so I guess it makes sense.

I would have done that.   I recently reused a clutch that I had from a parted out car.

If the condition was acceptable, why not? 

Yeah the rear brakes on that car aren't doing a whole lot. I'd say it's fine. 

Nothing wrong with running used pads, but to keep braking force and wear even across the axle, if you have used pads from the same set for the other side, you should change those as well.

I do agree with gameboy on this one, but adjustments should keep things in check until it is time to do a real replacement. Question I have though, why was one side in such bad shape and not the other?

mad_machine said:

I do agree with gameboy on this one, but adjustments should keep things in check until it is time to do a real replacement. Question I have though, why was one side in such bad shape and not the other?

Good question. I don't know, but the lining of one of the shoes just seemed to come detached from the backing plate, and wedged into the bottom spring, and tore one of the cylinder boots. Otherwise the other shoe was fine. Maybe I misadjusted that one shoe when I last did an adjustment. I've probably only put 500 miles on the car over the past 2 years. I noticed the noise when moving the car around in my driveway a couple of weeks ago when I was backing up, and then noticed the parking brake felt weird, and the pedal was strange as well.

Wear material separation doesn't have anything to do with wear so I'm not surprised it only happened on one side. It basically only happens due to manufacturing defects.

GameboyRMH said:

Wear material separation doesn't have anything to do with wear so I'm not surprised it only happened on one side. It basically only happens due to manufacturing defects.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the shoes are 7 months away from being 40 years old?

Mazdax605 said:

GameboyRMH said:

Wear material separation doesn't have anything to do with wear so I'm not surprised it only happened on one side. It basically only happens due to manufacturing defects.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the shoes are 7 months away from being 40 years old?

Maybe...although it mostly seems to happen when very new brakes are used hard.

Unbonded shoes are the only reason anybody ever changes them on Neons, Cavaliers and such.  If you had one fail, I would stick a screwdriver at the corners of all the shoes and see whether anything else is loose.