550 Parking Brake Shoes Removal

Can you fit a socket through the thread opening for the wheel bolts?

 

Just an idea from having worked on brake shoes previously -- perhaps you need to depress and rotate the bolt head until it fits into a slot, at which point you can remove the bolt. I recall old brake shoes worked that way and you had this tool which allowed you to depress and rotate in one motion. Look forward to hearing what you find.

 

Look at the back, is there a nut on the back of the brake shoe plate?

FPFaeth may be onto something, these are most of the time indeed press and turn 90 degree fasteners.

 

550s before Assembly Number 30707 had machined bolts holding in the brake shoes with the spring you can see in your photo. Later 550s and 575Ms eliminated those screws and springs. The springs maintain pressure on the shoes to keep them in place.

I think when Ferrari designed that set-up they thought the brake shoes would last the life of the car. Are you out of adjustment or are the linings all the way down to the shoe? If they can be adjusted I think I would leave them as is or you will have to remove the hubs to remove those bolts. They appear to seat directly into the hub. Make sure there is no nut on the back, though. Notice Ferrari naturally could not use the same bolt on the front and rear shoes, either. There are two separate bolts.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Typically there is no mention of replacing the parking brake shoes either in the owners handbook or the WSM.

If there were a nut on the backside it would show in the parts diagram.

This is just another example of what John Cribb and I refer to as "WTF were they thinking"

I'd just grind a relief in the hub at a non-critical point i.e. between the lug bolt threaded holes

From your picture it looks like it wouldn't take much of a relief to get the bolt out.

 

That is a weird design. I would just take the hub off. It also looks like you just barely don't have enough room. You could grind the hex to remove it, cut the hex off and tack weld a allen head on it and then never have that problem again. But it is probably not worth the effort.

 

I'm no engineer. But I'm not sure what introducing a stress riser would do to a stressed part. Maybe no weakness will be introduced.

 

Excellent! Then you can safely make the modification. Me...I'm just a grease monkey usually with more questions than answers.

 

Looks like Ferrari made quite a few changes on the 575. Here is a hub and parking brake. They do learn, as evidenced by the later 550s, but we do the OT&E for them.

Shoes held in by clips.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

In its day the 550 and 575 were the best of breed. Like the 328 to the 308 the 355 to 348 the 575 and any later iteration of a model is always improved in a good way. There is only 1 thing I like better about the 550 and that is the front spoiler area. The 575 wins in all other ways. If duratec or the Leonardo "light" ever make a F1 shifter diagnosis add-on a whole new world of F1 gearbox Ferraris can open up to the DIY'er.

 

Update to this thread: My 2000 550 does not have the screws shown in the pictures above but is the 575 design without screws. I'm not sure why those screws are there as they do not appear to be needed. So without screws the shoes remove very simply.

 

With reference this description and what I think is the adjuster shown on the pic post 13, to confirm, this is the handbrake adjustment mechanism on the 550/575?

 

I have a 99 550 and mine does not have the screws either. Mine look just like Taz's photo.

My understanding is that the handbrake is adjusted via a turnbuckle arrangement at the rear underneath of the car. Check out the WSM.

 

Philip- The handbrake adjusts just like the drum brakes on an old Chevrolet. Use a screwdriver on the starwheel to adjust the shoes outward until they just lock the wheel, then back off slightly so the wheel turns freely. Then adjust the handbrake cable.

 

Never had an old Chevy, Terry. First car was an MGB, as was the second. Thanks!

 

Philip- Sometimes I forget how young you whippersnappers are. I was adjusting drum brakes on Corvettes in the 60s. My first car was a 57 356A, which also had drum brakes with star wheel adjusters.

 

Terry,
Oh to be a whippersnapper again! Youth wasted on the young etc. Nope, comes from spending most of the first 28 years of my life in England where a Chevy would have been a curio and MGBs were the poor man's sports car!
Philip