I just discovered that I have a bent axle on the drivers side of my 81 fb. So while gathering the parts I realized the previous owner had sold me the car with out the rear drum brake adjusting wheel, ( I believed they called it a star wheel, regardless it is the piece in the assembly with the forks on each side) do you guys know of anywhere I can pick up one of these?? I've searched all over the auto parts stores in town and have come up empty handed. Also is there any of the same part off of other vehicles that will work with my stock drum set up??

 

Are you sure there is a missing adjusting wheel?
Im not familiar with the 81 drums but my 79 drums did not have one. There were seperate adjusters for each shoe. They were an offset bolt setup with no automatic adjusting provision, so no starwheel. Not sure about the 81.

 

Yeah, when I pulled the passenger side axle for a new outer axle seal I pulled off the drivers side drum for reference on exactly how the brakes would go back together and discovered a missing top brake shoe spring and the missing adjusting wheel / star wheel. I also discovered a bent rear axle, so I'm in the process of replacing the axle and trying really hard to find another adjuster since auto zone, napa, ect. don't carry them at all

 

That'll likely be a dealer-or-junkyard part, or maybe you can find someone who swapped to rear disk and still have the bits left over.

 

I ended up just calling the dealer and they ordered me a new one! It was so much more simple than calling the 40+ scrap yards I did.