Camatruder

I'm gonna rebuilt my rear drum brakes completely with new parts. How do i set the adjuster when installing these new parts? The Haynes does not mention any procedure.
Thanks.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

What I typically did with drum brakes was to put the drum on and see if there was any drag. At first there shouldn't be, then pull the drum of and adjust the shoes out.

Then put the drum back on and rotate it back and forth, any drag? No, adjust the shoes out a bit more.

Kept up with this until there was some drag. Then backed the adjuster down a few notches and put the drum/wheel/tire back on. Once both sides are done and the car is back on the ground, used the self-adjusting feature to get it where it belongs.

To do this drive in reverse and aggressively pump the brake pedal while coming to a full stop. Make sure to do this when the brakes are cold.

This last action in reverse is how the auto-adjusters work. Depending upon how much further adjustment is required, it isn't unusual to have the brake pedal to grab sooner.

RBob.

Camatruder

Thanks RBob, great info.
Only problem is that as when you adjust the shoes out it gets harder or near impossible to re-install the drum and still not having drag ones they are installed.
I hope the rubber pads are included in the hardware set I ordered so I can open the notch on the backside which will allow handling the adjuster with the drum installed.