I have a British car shop and over 42 years I’ve done thousands of MGB brake jobs.  You made that much harder than it needed to be.  First before removing the drum the adjuster should have been backed off.  If it was seized then gorilla techniques might be necessary.  Smacking the drum on its face will cause it to bounce outward.  Hitting the sides just tilts it and makes it more difficult.  The pliers are not necessary.  Simply remove the retainers and pull the shoes away from the adjuster at the top.  This releases the spring tension and the entire brake system almost falls off of the backing plate.  At this point if the adjuster is seized it needs to be freed up with heat or replaced.  Use anti-seize on the moving parts of the adjuster.  The cylinder is held in with horrible clips.  This is the worst part of the job and should have been the focus of the repair.

This is perfect.. can't wait to replace the brakes on my 1979 mgb restoration project

Thanks for this, just completed on my MGB 👍

If you put the top spring on before slotting the shoes into the top adjuster it is so much easier.  A simple tip

brake wheel cylinder,  not "piston". Also, best to soak area with brake cleaner BEFORE starting in order to reduce inhalation of brake shoe dust. There's nothing like working on drum brakes to make one wish they had disk brakes.  Everytime I work on mine I have difficulty getting the drum back on. even with the adjuster screws fully retracted! Thanks for the tip about positioning the shoes.

Why are you missing the upper adjuster,    Looks like its missing, there should be little wedges in there,  I  might be wrong,  But mine did

Didn't mention the brake adjuster back it off to remove the drum and needs adjusting after new shoes and drums are fitted works on quarter incriminates found opposite the wheel cylinder up top on the mgb

Hello Dr. D., I found your channel by the tool box tour. I then just took around to see what else you did videos of and found the MGB videos. My first car was a 70 MGB when I was 15, 37 years later and 3 Bs, 3 A's and 2 TDs, I am still loving them. I don't know where you live (rust belt) or what the rest of the car looks like, but take a good look at those rockers... you can pretty much assume they are gone when you buy a MGB. I would hate to see you put in all the work on the motor and brakes getting it to start and stop, then have the car fail inspection because it's about the fold in half in the middle. Cheers!

Good job and very helpful for beginners, thanks

I might actually be able to get mine put back together now.  I have a 78 midget.  I might have an issue though.  I dont have any of the return springs.  I was not the one who did my initial brake job.

Wow

Those are not return springs. They are anti-rattle springs, and you don’t need a special tool to put them in. Just use pliers so you can see what you are doing.

👍👏👏👏

I had difficulty removing the round head bolt of the wheel cylinder. What was the size of flare nut wrench  did you use?

You seemed to have had no problem getting that clip back on the cylinder. Did you have a special technique you used?  One tip I got that I think was useful is to cover the brake shoe linings with masking tape in order to avoid getting oil or grease residue on them. Don't know about you, but I can't seem to keep the oil, grease and dirt off my paws.  LOL

I always find it a frustrating experience to re-install the drum; it requires great patience and an expanded vocabulary.  The point about turning the brake adjuster so the shoes are as far in as possible before removing the drum is a good one. Working on disk brakes is infinitely easier.

Love these videos. Thank you so much. Was wondering, do you use the jack stands on the rear axle tube for this video?

Amazing video. It was just what I was looking for : my rear right stucks into place so it is time for me to man up and open the sucker ! I guess you need to bleed the circuit to change the break wheel cylinder, do you have any advice on that ?

What is the tool you used to remove the springs?

Why not finish the video with putting on the lug nuts??? How did that go? Doing it now and I’m a bit stumped - first timer with an MGB😬