How do I clean oil soiled brakeshoes?

[trolle]

I just bought a complete rear drive for spare parts. The brakeshoes are brand new but the PO must have been very careless when lubricating the splines because the shoes are rather soiled.

How do I get them clean and usable again?

greetings from a cold and windy north

trolle

[Justin B.]

You could try lacquer thinner, unless they are saturated.  One trick when refinishing old gunstocks is to apply a little heat, this will often raise soaked in oil to the surface.

[Jon_P]

couple cans of brake clean. it helps bring the oil up also.

[airhead]

Both above replies are fine just as long as the oil hasn't saturated the linings. If it has you may as well bin them as the oil will forever be raising to the surface with time and heat regardless of how much cleaning you try. In fact you may as well save on brake clean considering how much you would eventually need.
If it's light impregnation, try the above, then use sandpaper/emery cloth to roughen up the surface to remove any glazing.

Bill...................;-)

[nhmaf]

+1 to what Bill said !

 

[Justin B.]

I agree, Bill, that's why I qualified my suggestion by stating, "unless they are saturated."  Lacquer thinner is pretty cheap and last I bought at Home Depot was under $10/gl and as far as a degreaser is concerned I don't think the more expensive brake cleaner will do any better for this application.  Where brake cleaner really shines is in it's ability to do a fair job of degreasing and brake dust removal without causing much (if any) harm to the rubber bits and painted surfaces in the vicinity of brake components.

[rl900]

If they are bonded linings do not soak them in lacquer thinner.  A friend accidently dropped his Surflex bonded clutch discs to his Norton in the oil drain pan.  Decided he would soak them in lacquer thinner overnight.  Next morning all the fiber pads were floating in the solvent.

I would spray with standard brake cleaner, wipe with a clean rag and repeat.  If that doesn't do it, buy new.

Ron L

[Frank_M]

If you got a Dollar Store nearby, spend 2 bucks for a 32-ounce bottle of ThunderBlast'r. Use it full strength.

[Ed Miller]

Is that a water based cleaner like Simple Green?  I will keep my eyes open for it.

[Justin B.]

Yeah, definitely DO NOT SOAK them in thinner, or any other type of solvent!!!!!  Another good de-greaser is Greased Lightning, Either Lowes or Home Depot has it here...

[suecanada]

If you can save the brake shoes Trolle, Rob V. advised me to: Scruff up the shoes with sandpaper grit 60 by removing the shoes and drawing them across the sandpaper which is lying on a very flat surface like a piece of glass. Shoes rubbed on paper; not the other way around. I think the idea is to get a very even scruffing.  The wheel lining gets 220 grit sandpaper, scruffed the best you can.

[trolle]

Status: I soaked the shoes in white spirit overnight, let them dry and sanded them as Sue recommended. When inspecting them this morning the lining at one of the shoes showed signs of being soiled at both ends, while the lining of the other shoe was almost clean.

I have placed them on a warm radiator in the hope that the residual oil will diffuse to the surface of the lining.

Thank you all for your advice.

greetings from a grey and not very cold north

trolle