Hey guys i have an 85 12a model with rear drum brakes. I replaced the brake shoes but noticed the brake adjuster (the screw portion with the star wheel) was seized so i tried to unseize them. One of them came apart fine but the other one snapped on me and is no longer usable. I am wondering if there are any car models that might use a similar one i could replace it with as i cannot find one new anywhere and i haven't seen any in junk yards around here to pull one off of. So are there any drum brake adjusters for other cars that are similar in size and i might just have to cut a millimeter off or something? or does anybody know where to get a new one?

 

I broke one of mine as well and didn't have much luck finding one at the local yard, Mazda dealerships and even specialized "JDM" parts dealers....
I got lucky and had my girlfriends father machine a new one for me before he retired.
If you have access to a machinist I can scan and send you his measurements.

 

is the adjuster really needed? Turns out when I first did the rear drum brakes, I found that the adjuster was destroyed from friction on the axle. It had fallen off but the brakes worked fine all this time.

Mazda parts guy said the previous owner probably had mineke or midas do the brakes.

 

Well i don't think it is needed to drive around, but ever since, my parking brake seems to not work very well. the rear passenger side tire it broke on has hardly any resistance when the parking brake is applied. i can turn it by hand as soon as it is off the ground. i think i may have found one from a friend. not sure yet.

 

so update. my brakes now feel like there is air in the line. i hadn't driven it but once since until the other day. i bled them in what i think is the correct pattern and no change. there is no rear drivers side bleed screw so i did rear passenger front driver front passenger. i literally flushed all of the fluid to new clear fluid. So im wondering why your brakes might work fine without it where mine are doing absolutely nothing now? or if there is a work around.

 

Without the adjuster the parking brake will probably never engage fully. The parking brake is
designed to work optimally when the rear drums have been adjusted correctly. On SAs we
are always adjusting the rear drums because they don't have the star adjuster on them. The
reason is that if the drums are out of adjustment, the car won't stop very well and the parking
brake won't hold worth beans.

You need to hit up a bone yard and get the adjuster or post a wanted ad in the classifieds.