A real story that everyone here is most likely to have lived.

I am on the way home from work today in my wagon. It starts acting a little funny when I get to around 40 MPH and I am getting a little noise from the back. I have the rear window down to enjoy the hot & humid Dallas afternoon. I start wondering what that smell is??? I get into the driveway (I live very close to work - thank God) and I see a small cloud of smoke roll by the passenger window. I did not panic. I assumed a piece of trash or? got caught on the exhaust or worse yet that my rear wheel cylinder popped and somehow got on the exhaust. So I need to go get my haircut using the wife's mini-van (by the way, it is for sale, gee I will hate to see it go - said with alot of sarcasm). I made sure the smoke stopped before leaving, and damn that rim was hot! I get back and pull the tire to check things out. The brake shoe was marginal with some grit in it. A very small spring dropped out. I am trying to figure out where the spring came from. When I say small, it was about 1/8" in diameter and was about 1 1/2 inches long. Any ideas? And then I noticed the axle seal is shot. Axle grease dripping onto a hot drum makes smoke. So I start spinning the tires listening to the bearings. They sound a little rough. This all leads to now I will replace the axle bearings, axle seals, rear brake shoes and get the drums cut. I look at it as a chance to pop the pumpkin and take a look and swap the fluid. I decided to pull the driver's side and noticed that half of the brake shoe material is missing. Such is life and I now get the opportunity to put it back together correctly. And I am going on vacation starting this Friday.... Right now, the wagon is relaxing in the garage next to my yellow submarine. Now I am wondering what the point of this post was? Apparently just to share with my fellow gearheads who understand. Thanks for listening.
Frank

I feel your pain (in the wallet)
Little spring is part of the axle seal. When you get your new seal look carefully at the back side you'll see it way inside there

Sounds like a typical rear brake job with axle seals is in order. Thats not that bad, and not so expensive either.

That spring could be part of the e-brake mechanism. If things turn loose the shoes will continue to press (pretty hard) against the drum and eat themselves up. Ask me how I know...

Sounds like a typical rear brake job with axle seals is in order. Thats not that bad, and not so expensive either.

Chris,
You are correct sir. I guess this was more of the "the car is smoking, what happened and how much will it cost". In the past, I always assumed worst case. I don't do that these days and took it as an excuse to play with my car in the driveway. It is nice that it worked out the way it did. When I called the local O'reilly's they had everything in stock and the total damage was $65 and the cost to turn both drums.

Cecil,
Pmullaly hit it on the nose. It is from the axle seal. The outer piece of the seal came apart and let the spring pop out. I checked to make sure the drums were rotating freely before pulling everything apart. Thanks for the help.
Frank