12abridgeport

Just did a bunch of maintenance on a '84 GS and the last thing needed to get done is the rear drum brakes. Never did drum brakes before and i'm not very thrilled about them to be honest.

The problem I have is when I put everything back together like it should be, my drum won't fit over the shoes. However, I have the adjuster turned all the way in...what am I doing wrong?

Also, where is that lever supposed to go, that's on the right shoe? You can see it in the picture, I have a feeling it's not in the right spot.

Thanks for any help in advance

j_tso

iTrader: (2)

The top of the left shoe should be touching the cylinder like it is on the right side.

The fork of the adjuster going on the lever is correct. Is the other side in the notch of the right shoe?

Here's a shoe replacement thread in the archive

12abridgeport

Thanks for quick reply. Yes, the other side of the notch is in the right shoe.

The lever is just laying on top of the adjuster, not doing anything, that's why it feels weird to me. Ha-ha

I took these a part about a month ago to do wheel bearings and had a hard time finding a machine shop to get it done right. So when it came time to wrap it all up, I forgot how it all came out because it's been so long.

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

Have you looked the the other rear wheel brake to check how it is installed?

12abridgeport

Alright, I really need some help with this. I already have seen the how to thread on doing drum brakes and looked at FSM. Even after I put everything back together like it should go, with both shoes touching the cylinder and the adjuster turned all the way in. I still can't fit the drum over the shoes.

What am I doing wrong? The picture below is of the other side of the car from the previous one... If you notice, the adjuster even has some more room to dig into the left shoe.

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

I have SA brakes which have no auto adjusters, so excuse my ignorance, but don't the adjusters
go on the bottom, opposite of the cylinder. I know thats true for most drum setups and on the
SA the adjusters are on the bottom as well.

What it looks like to me is that bracket behind the pads at the top should be the parking brake
link. Is your parking brake off?

nm, just looked at some pics on the web and the adjuster appears to be on top.

BTW, this is why you only do one side at a time. Lesson learned I suppose. Wish I could help more.

12abridgeport

Well I needed to get the wheel bearings done, so it made sense to do both at the same time. That was even suggested in another thread.

Plus, I figured if I can blueprint and build a 4cyl engine from the ground up and then tune it for a lot of boost, drum brakes shouldn't be much of a concern. Lol. I guess, I was wrong

Btw, yes the parking brake is all the way down. However, I did mess with its adjustment right before taking everything a part. Going to look into that because I really can't see anything else out of order besides the shoes themselves being out of spec or something...