Brake travel
 

So long story short, my brake pedal travels about 3 inches before I get ANY feel to them. I bled my brakes and got a minimal amount of air and that helped me get about a half-inch less travel. The disks have about 3000 miles, the master cylinder has about 2,700 miles on them and the drums have less than 2,500 on them. I adjusted my drums as advised. Had this issue then, still have this issue after doing a two-man through bleed today. . Is there any way to adjust the pedal so I DONT have 3 inches of play. It's absurd, and everyone who drives it thinks my brakes don't work and mash the brakes and lock them because they do work .
My system has no leaks.
The Master cylinder is new.
Yes, I did my drum/ disk brakes right.

Or did Mazda just decide that's how they were going to design this car's brake system ?

Supposed to help if the new Master Cylinder is bench-bled prior to install. Shop with proper bleeder gear will likely be the next step, which is what I finally had to do...

Stu A
80GS
AZ

No bench bleed was ever done, this master has a zerk fitting on the top so you can bleed it up there ( and I got a lot of bubbles out of it that way). I have pumped the brakes about 50 times on ALL sides ( going slowly) , no bubbles came out. They feel fine when I engage the brakes, but then dip when I disengage. My e brake also barely engages anymore.

Have a PDF doc about correct rear drum adj, which, according to this doc, sounds like the source of your probs.
PM me with your email if you are interested, and I will send you the PDF file...

Stu A
80GS

Stu, I would also be interested in having the file to put in the FSM collection I have. I would be greatful if you were able to send it my way as well.

I'm still waiting on mine haha. I though ti did a good job =( lol

I'd just be curious to see what information it offers. If your parking brake cable is adjusted properly at the parking brake handle, the issue has to be in the rear shoe adjustment. Are you able to easily rotate the drum by hand and does it offer resistance when removing it?

I know how I adjusted mine when I replaced the rear shoes and wheel cylinders. I have a good pedal and parking brake. But I'm curious to see what advice this document has to offer.

I have read that the wheel SHOULD NOT spin freely from another thread , that it should scrape but enough that the wheel should give you about half a turn freely. After about 1 mile of driving the pad will " scrape " itself to the point you have less than a hair of clearance .
What i did was find the very small sweet spot where it spun freely. But for all I know that gap is maybe 4x-10x the gap that the scrape method is. Again i might be wrong but thats what some one posted on here like 15 years ago when arguing about self adjusting brakes in the 79's

Sounds correct, based on my Docs. - which you guys should now have :)

About the only mechanical mod I have (so far) done to my SA was to drop in an FB rear end with DBs. Happy to leave the drums behind...

Stu A
80GS
AZ

Your ebrake not working right and the extra pedal travel means the rears are either out of adjustment (ebrake is a mechanical pull so no way hydraulics are an issue) or you messed up the shoe install on one side or both. It could be just one shoe is dragging and not the other.

I forgot to say, the brake worked fine for about a month. I do indeed think me adjusting the drums to freespin was my mistake now, I should have had some resistance.. also I still haven't received an email =( haha.

I have an auto so I don't know if a 79/80 disk rear end will bolt right up. although I'm reading drums if adjusted right are better than dual disks ( there is data to show that ) , it truly is not worth the hassle and the hardware kit for drum brakes is getting hard to find, I had to hunt it down last year ( i put all the links up for you guys! don't suffer like i did! )

Getting a crisp feel on the brake pedal is the bane of manually adjusted rear drums on these cars. You can do it, and it gets better as the shoes wear into the exact curve of the drums, but requires constant adjustment to be anywhere near what you get by default with disk brakes. Thats why very few new cars have drums these days.

The trick with SA drums and their adjusters is all about getting the right tension on new shoes, and then readjusting after about 100-150 miles for best pedal feel. That break in period is what shapes the shoe material to match your drums, and heats the shoe friction surface to harden it. With new shoes and both rear tires in the air, jackstands in place, and the trans in Neutral, loosen the Lock Nut which frees up the Star Adjuster (*in the center). Working with one shoe adjuster at a time, shove the tire in the forward direction and observe rotation. You want it to spin under slight friction and make about 1/2 turn before stopping. HOLD the star adjuster in place while you tighten the Lock Nut. Note that as you tighten the Lock Nut, it changes the tension on the Star Adjuster. This is due to the camming action of the adjusting bolt on the bottom mount of the shoe.

Once you get one set correctly, do the same for the other on that wheel, and then repeat on the other side. This is a very tedious process, and takes time and feel.

You'll know when you get them too tight, because after 2-3 miles, you'll smell brakes, and the car will get sluggish because the shoes are overheating from too much friction, and expanding - causing the rear to brake constantly. Don't drive it like this. There's a very fine line between too tight and perfect. When perfect, the pedal will engage right at the top and provide awesome brake pedal feel - for about 100 miles or so - gradually getting softer and softer...

That is correct, the wheel should not spin freely. That's why I had asked if it does. LongDuck really covered the how to on this so I don't have any more to add really. His response is spot on and I would advise spending an afternoon working on your rear brake adjustment and seeing how much improvement you get out of adjusting the rear brakes.

Just to be 100% sure . I don't have to take the Drum cover off ( or the wheel ) to adjust right ? I remember doing the adjustment last by cracking one bolt and using a flathead to turn the screw .I could probably do this in under 2 hours , i was just ill advised and told to make sure they spun freely , which was hard because there truly was a 10° turn where i went from scraping to no scraping and I adjusted to get the max clearance .. That took some time.. If i would have known then 😁

Yep, get em adjusted then come back and complain or not :D

My car with drums has very good brakes, like toss you into the windshield good.

Mine does too ! After 3 inches of travel 😁😁

A good test is to feel your wheels after adjusting the brakes. Both should feel the same temperature and they may be a bit warm and stink some. Thats normal. If one is way hotter than the other side then the hot one is doing all the work. Remember the rear brake line goes to the drivers side drum then to the passenger side and it only bleeds on the passenger side. That makes bleeding the rears twice the work on the one wheel as a normal car.

You don't have to remove the wheels or the drums to adjust but it makes it easier without the wheels. Also I adjust mine every few thousand miles, like when I change the oil.

As stated above, no need to remove the drum to adjust the shoes but it does simply the adjustment process. Honestly, in a way its easier to get a better adjustment if the drum is left on, but its certainly more difficult.

I think you meant wheel, if the drum is off, no way you can adjust it, right?

"Star wheels". Ugh. The parking brake on my wife's Altima is a drum in the disc system. I found that using a paint can opener was a little bit easier, the return on the "blade" can hook the star wheel a bit better.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...df9d9b2433.jpg

That's not even the worst part, the worst part is placing the stupid spring into the right parts, i had to make a custom hook clamped by a vice grip just t put them in .

Great idea, the actual tool I have sucks!