not much info on the board in relation to this so I thought I'd give my 2 cents.

I am in the process of replacing rear rotors and calipers and figured why not do the parking brake as well.

Well It's a royal pain in the a_ _ .

It's drum brakes which I have always hated doing.

Well while in there might as well was my motto.

After studing the board for tips and pointers and ordering the parts (make sure get hardware kit with the new shoes about 30.00 all together)it was time to get to it.

Loosened the hand brake adjuster under the rear seat ashtray as instructed by manual and board postings, and stared removing the passenger side rear caliper.
Struggled a bit getting the caliper free ....not much room for the 17mm socket near the spring coil....had to get out the pblaster and the pry pipe.

got it loose and banged off the caliper, dissassembled the old brake and springs etc and started into putting the new shoes and hardware together.

long story short..... I like many others couldn't get the new rotor back on.

I must've tried for about 2 hours I was out side till 2am under the easy up covering the rear end of the vehicle set up so I could work in the rain.

I gave up and started to check the brick board to make sure I hadn't lost any parts and prep for the next morning.

Today I searched the archives for threads ...and after an hour of reading I found a good thread from "yellowbrickroadster". It said to "disconnect the brake cables" to get the shoes to compress enough.

I didn't want to do that where it goes into the hub area seeing how it looked pretty difficult to re attach. So i thought he meant at the hand brake lever.

I called a local volvo dealer's parts dept to get a fax of the parking brake micro fiche page from their manual. I thought I was missing a piece or something like that.

He put me on the phone with a mechanic and he gave me the BIG HINT. He said it was a two person job one person pulls the cable towards the brake to allow sufficient slack to compress the shoes.

I asked about the expander and if it should be replaced. he said they last a long time just clean it and lubricate.

he also said remove the center console and make sure that the cable was "Real Loose" by adjusting the hand brake adjuster out.

Did that and it was time to see if would work......I was alone... so I had to get the disc on the lug screws and while hunched over the brake & tucked under the wheelwell i pulled the cable towards me while using my knees to press on the rotor...Walla it went on like a charm.

I was bragging to my wife and giving her the play by play and I remembered I didn't put the long spring on the shoes......s_it.....oh well the second time was less then 5 minutes to stretch the spring out (clip in bottom first and with a long thin flat head screw driver...using the small hub and axle as a lever to get close to the upper notch and then push in with other hand another screw driver) insert it and re curl my self over the wheel hub.

Hope my agony will help others save some time in the future.

It feels good to give back to the board after all it has given me.

Mark

85 740 gle 235k m46