230 SL rear brake shoes

[Bonanza]

I can not find a jobber that has rear brake shoes for my 230 SL . Is this part available? Any help would be great.

[ja17]

Have them re-lined. You'll save lots of money. Most cities have places that do this.

[jameshoward]

Absolutely what Joe says. In Europe, I have found truck repair shops were the best bet.

[Tomnistuff]

I had my 230SL rear brake shoes relined at Phoenix Friction Products in Ontario (NO CUSTOMS to Canadians) for about $125 Canadian.  I haven`t installed them yet but they look OK.

http://www.phoenixfriction.ca/cars.htm

Tom Kizer

[Pedrocamp]

I have spoken to an older gentleman here that does them:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Orange-County-Brake-Services/503481816362527

I haven't sent any yet so I don't have direct experience other than inquiry, my shoes still have material. If I recall they were about $60-$75 for both sides.

[merrill]

I believe K&K MFG will also re line them

[Tomnistuff]

I'm reviving this old thread because the title is perfect for my post and I need to follow up on a post I made in December 2013.

I said then that I had my 230SL rear brake shoes relined by Phoenix Friction Products in Ontario, Canada and provided their web site.  That was because the original question and post was by Bonanza in British Columbia.  I said I hadn't installed them yet but they looked OK.

Well, I'm five months older and about 10 hours of work wiser so here's an update.  When I ordered MY shoes relined and sent them the old shoes, I also sent the two pages of specs from the BBB about relining 230SL shoes, just in case.  They seem to have done a good job of binding the friction material to MY shoes, BUT...

In the last few days, I've spent about 10 hours on the driver's side rear brakes alone, measuring the friction material thickness in several places, carefully block sanding the friction material, fitting the hub, examining hub witness marks on the friction material and then doing it all over and over again.  I'm still not satisfied but at least with the shoes fully retracted, I can now turn the hub by hand and the witness marks are getting much, much smaller.  The problem?

The lining that Phoenix Friction Products installed on my shoes is nominally 7 millimeters thick (my measurement).  The Mercedes Benz spec, which I sent to them, calls for a lining thickness of 6.0 (+0.0/-0.3) millimeters.

That extra 2.0 millimeters diameter on the lining made it impossible to even install the hub.  I had to sand them down by measurement until I could force the hub on in order to get witness marks on the lining as a guide for further sanding.

Why not send them back?  Phoenix relined them for me in July 2012 (I sent them off long before I needed them), and they were already beyond their guarantee before I tried to install them.  Beware, when preparing for a restoration, one can "peak too early".

Having almost finished with the driver's side rear brakes, I can hardly wait to start on the passenger's side -- NOT !

Maybe they figured, "If 6 mm thickness is good, 7 is better."  At least I can't complain that they sent me linings that were too thin.

Once again, live and learn.

Tom Kizer

[scoot]

I went through a similar problem re-fitting the relined shoes to the rear brakes on my fintail.  Ultimately the solution was to return them with the drums and have them re-arced.  Also it is imperative to remove all tension from the parking brake cable.