Drum Brake Nightmare...

[Siege]

So I had scratching and all sorts of yucky noises coming from my rear... so Like the Scooby-Do Gang I investigate. And Behold the list of problems...
first My Rear-Passenger drum would not come off. The Driver side went just fine. Well what happened was the bearing was seized on the spindle...Great

So after much Sledge hammering, Crow-baring and drum pulling, it came off. But the inner bearing was still seized on the spindle, so I used the drum puller (carefully...) on the bearing and was able to rip it off (Of course warping the backing plate). Then I find out that no-one carries the bearings for the 2005 Aveo.

So I ordered the bearing, I went ahead and replaced the shoes no problem. But before I finished I inspected the drum cylinder, and saw that it was leaking (Great!) So Bought a new cylinder then and replaced it no problem. I put it all together then went to bleed the brakes... then snap the bleeder off of the cylinder I didn't replace... And my other cylinder now has a small amount of fluid leaking out of it from the break-line. Looks like I might have goobered it up at the thread (I think some sealant tape will fix it).

All in all this was a nightmare of a weekend and still don't have the Aveo up and running. I also came to find out one scary conclusion.. all my adjusters are not in the correct spot?!? The adjusters are on the opposite side of the rubber grommet... I took pictures but unfortunately can't post them because they are too big.. I will try and re-size or allow links later. Just had to frustrating of a weekend. If anyone wants to chime in with ideas on how to adjust the drums, please by all means The Brakes are spongy and not really working and the Aveo is now undrivable

[HeavyDuty]

well when you buy a car (new) you should be doing a brake system flush within the first year or so or when the fluid test fails at that time I remove all the bleeder screws, replace poor ones and apply a thick coat of antisieze on them, reinstall and bleed. I then flush the system once per year after that so it keeps all the bleed screws workable. I keep a few new spares on hand so I can change out any that deteriorate while doing the flush. If you replace one wheel cylinder you should really do both, anything done to an axle side should be done on the other side..at least that's the rule I use this just keeps everything working the same and as it should. To adjust rear brakes, backup and make a brake application this works the self-adjuster...or in some cases it's the e-brake. If you don't make firm brake applications when you back up, sometimes the self-adjusters don't adjust and in time seize up and don't work at all.

Leave the teflon tape in your tool box, job worth doing is worth doing right....and your right I see no way to adjust my rear brakes with drum and wheel on the car either there's no access via the backing plate to the adjuster wheel.