Need advice

Ok guys, I just had a power front disc brake kit installed on my bel air by a local shop on friday. I drove it most of tuesday and when I came back right before I put it in my garage, the rear wheel almost came off. 4 of the lugs were completely gone including the studs. I am lucky that this did not happen while I was driving, and I put the rear wheels on myself before I had this shop do the brakes. I ***ume that at some point they removed the rear wheels to bleed the rear drums, so in my eyes it is the shops fault for this incident. Now personally, nothing happened, so there will be no legal repurcussions. I would never sue someone unjustfully, because in my eyes that is plain wrong. The reason I am posting this is my question is there is no way to bleed the brakes without removing the wheels, correct? I am going to ask this shop to put new studs in and I believe the rear brake line may have gotten cut while the wheel was moving around with no studs in it. I am going to ask that they fix both of these problems, and that shall be the end of it. I posted something about this a couple of days ago, and found the studs to be the culprit yesterday. So is there any way to bleed the drums without removing the wheels? I think that is the most important part of this.
-Cory

 

i hate to be the one to tell you,but the bleeder screw is located on the backing plate.
are you sure you didn't crank those lugs a little too hard with an impact wrench?

 

Yorgatron's right but....

As a professional line wrench, I know it's a lot easier to rip all the wheels off the car, bleed the brakes (cause you can access the bleeders with a wrench easier with the wheels off) and stick 'em back on. And on an old car, more often than not, you run into problems. If you can pull the drum and fix it quick, its easier than calling the customer and trying to sell a repair on the rear after he's shelled out big bucks for the front. I do this all the time.

If they fired the lugs on with an air gun, and not by hand with a torque wrench, they could have caused your problem, just as easily as you could have.

If you are dealing with a reputable shop, and you are cool with them, it's cheaper for them to replace your lugs, and install new brake lines, than to deal with the negative repercussions. If you go in being an a$$hole, they won't do it, cause technically they never had to deal with the rear end.

Bottom line is, you can't prove that they caused the problem. But if you calmly explain the situation, (it helps if you are a regular customer) they should step up. If not, don't give 'em your business anymore.

 

I understand that being cordial gets you a lot farther than being a **** . I was just going to ask them if they removed the rear drums or not, and if they say they did I was going to ask them to replace the studs and repair the lines. If they didn't, then I will pay them to do this repair. I've been going to this shop for 4 years and have referred over 50 customers, so it is definitely a good professional relationship. I am 22 and learning as much about old vehicles as possible, and when it comes to brakes, I really don't want to work on them as I understand how they work, its just not something I am familar with.
-Cory