We see dozens of soiled brake shoes from axle seal leaks. This weep hole is critical and they are often plugged. Make sure to check yours!

Too often, we remove rear drums to find shoes that look like these above. Soiled. Why? Everything leaks in our world, and while the culprit is often a mix of axle grease and hydraulic fluid, sometimes the oil is blocked from exiting the back plate which compounds the problem. You can see the design of the back plate (two pictures down) allows the bearing carrier to sit in a nice little recess with a drain hole, and if that is blocked, the oil that leaks past the axle seal is going to ruin your brakes.

Axle seals can only do so much. When these weep holes are clogged (and they often are), the axle oil will run out of its recessed area and onto the drum, where it will be the same principles of spin-art; soil your brake shoes, coat your drum with oil, or both. Either way, you’re left with no rear brakes and a big mess to clean-up.

You can see the hole in all these pictures, on just the naked axle housing and also on the car with the backplate attached. Keep ’em clear!

And keep in mind that a failed axle gasket and o-ring will also cause the same effect, even if your weep hole is clear, as will a leaking rear wheel cylinder. You can find our wet brake shoe kit in our catalog, we have the parts to help!