Drum Brake Adjustment Tips

After my front brake pad/rotor replacement, I was greeted with a grinding at the rear end at slow speeds (~15-35mph) which goes away at faster speeds. I took off the drum on the driver side and found the adjusting screw assembly head was bent but otherwise the rest of the components were in good shape. I did have to hammer off the drum which broke off a few pieces of it so a new drum is coming in. So I'll need those two parts. I didn't have the time to take off the passenger side drum because of time constraints but expect to need to beat the drum off, probably damaging it and getting a new one.

Assuming the internals on the passenger side are alright and once I get the new stuff installed, is adjustment putting it on jackstands, chocked, in neutral, and spinning the wheel and making the adjustment until there is a slight bit of drag on the wheel while turning it?

Thanks in advance.

I would go ahead and order that other drum, just so you have them fresh as a pair. I would also look closely at the other brake hardware, and consider replacing it all, if you've got any that's damaged. It's probably all very old, and none of it is made to last. But yes, that's pretty-much the procedure for adjusting.

Water under the bridge here, but if the drum was not rusted to the hub, but moved a little and then got stuck, there's a reason for that, and a way to get the drum off without beating it. The shoes contact only a major portion of the drum surface, not the whole thing. There's a thin strip at the rim of the drum that the shoes don't contact. Well, as the shoes work, the not only wear themselves down, they put some wear on the drum. EXCEPT for the part where there's no contact. That creates a "lip" on the rim of the drum, that's smaller diameter than the contact surface (contact surface diameter increases over time, slowly but inexorably). As the shoes adjust (if indeed the adjusters work, or if you adjust them manually), they eventually expand out to where they interfere with that "lip" when you try to take the drum off. You have to backward-adjust the shoes to get them to clear the lip. 'Course, in your case, if beating on the drum make pieces of it break off (same thing happened with one of our PSDs), it's wise just to replace the drums anyway.

Oh, and you probably know the cardinal rule - except for removing the drum, ONLY take the hardware bits off one side at a time. That way you have a visual mirror-image referece to what things should look like on the side you're working on. I've found that even after taking pics, sometimes I didn't get quite the angles I wanted, to depict all the components. A "live 3-D" reference is always handy

Before removing any brake parts use your phone and take pics of every fastening point of the springs and hardware routing. It really helps remind you how it came apart. Hope it was put together correctly too.

Add to your list a spring kit for the backing plate. While you have it all apart, replace all the little bits inside that come in the spring kit. Few dollars now saves a lot of pain later and you end up with better brakes.

I clean the hell out of the adjustment screw and lube it with copper never seize. So far that has really paid off. It might for you as well. Brake adjustment for me is always run the adjuster screw up while rotating the wheel until the brake locks up, then back it off until it is just making light contact. Running the adjuster out to lockup puts pressure on all the pivot points and seats the shoes to the drum so you know you have full contact. Then backing it off till it just has a little drag puts the wheel cylinder travel at minimum required movement which gives you more brake peddle.

When adjusting for slight drag...once drag is felt go pump brake pedal a few times...retest for drag...adjust more or less acording to how now feels...

Pressing pedal centres out shoes and compnents zo a more accurate adjustment is done.

JM2CW

Thanks, guys. I'm going to open up the passenger side this morning and check that side out. Assuming things are in order there, I'll probably keep the shoes - they looked surprisingly good, get a pair of drums, spring kit, a pair of cylinders because they're original, inexpensive enough, and I just did front calipers within 2 years of each other.

The parking brake cables looked good and had smooth movement on them.

I looked into the disc brake option from TSC and I just can't justify the $800 cost for it and I've seen other places cobble together Dana 44 GM front calipers/El Dorado calipers, Econoline rotors, and brackets, but I want the parking brake to stay operational. If it were an off-road vehicle maybe I could justify it with a drivetrain or transfer case brake, but this is a highway driver.

Thanks again all!