Parking Brake Adjustment Issues

I've been jacking around w/ the parking brake adjustments all day. The first issue was that because the spring in the photo wasn't on they had adjusted the cable end almost to the bottom. It's taken me several sessions of non-stubby wrench turning. If fact you can see where I have the adjustable wrench holding the cable from turning. Fortunately it will wedge in place right there.

The other major concern is that I feel by the time I get the outer brake shoe adjusting bolt down to the shoe I'll loose the needed length for the spring to stay on the bolt. I've already turned it down quite a bit but you can see how much is left before even touching the shoe let alone pushing it closer to the drum.

Does this all look right to others that have had their heads up here? Is there something that I'm not getting?

I've adjusted the nut on the cable out until it no longer touches the lever arm but I still have about half the threaded length beyond that.
At this point the outer shoe has way too much clearance and the inner shoe is pressed against the drum.

"Sent w/o me knowing"

I kind of had the same issue with mine. The outter shoe was wasted and the inner shoe was still ok everything was out of adjustment and cable at max. I replaced the shoes and all the springs ( 1 was missing ). It took me forever to find the tm with the breakdown of all the springs and adjustments. It was several years ago and I no longer have the tm saved.

The inner and outer shoes are set at .05 or 1/64 of an inch with a feeler gauge, can't remember the TM but here's a video I produced on the subject with illustrations from that TM.

I have the TM, it's 9-2320-361-24-1 and they give the clearance between shoe and drum as 0.015".
I feel that if I adjust the adjusting bolt on the outer shoe down enough to get that clearance then the spring will pop off the end of it.

1. Place parking brake lever (2) in release position. Turn adjusting cap (1) counterclockwise to fully disengage parking brake.
2. Loosen nut (10) and turn adjusting screw (11) to set clearance of outer parking brakeshoe (9) and brakedrum ( to .015 in. (.381 mm) (A). Tighten nut (10).
3. Loosen jamnut (4) on threaded end of brake cable (3). Turn adjusting nut (5) until .015-in. (.381-mm) clearance (B) is obtained between the inner brakeshoe (7) and brakedrum (. Tighten
   jamnut (4) against adjusting nut (5).
4. Hold eccentric pin (6) and loosen nut on opposite side.
5. Turn eccentric pin (6) until .015-in. (.381-mm) clearance (C) is obtained at both ends of inner brakeshoe (7) and brakedrum (. Tighten nut on opposite side of eccentric pin (6) 38-42 lb-ft (52-57 N•m).
6. Apply and release parking brake lever (2) twice. Stop in release position. Recheck clearances (steps 2,3, and 5).
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 as necessary to obtain .015-in. (.381-mm) clearance.

I'm clear on the method of adjustment but look at the photos I posted. If I turn the bolt (11) down until it touches the shoe it looks like the spring will no longer have enough bolt above the lock nut to stay in place. At that point I would still need to turn down even farther to push the shoe down.
I have the lock nut just backed off from the bracket enough to turn the adjusting bolt and have been holding it there w/ the wrench that you can see the end of in the photo. Mostly just because I'm afraid of the spring popping off.

I am jealous of how things are positioned on your 5 ton, much easier to get to!

Modify the spring, instead of catching the bolt above the nut hook it to the bolt between the nut and the bracket.

Where that spring goes around that bolt, that's supposed to go underneath the nut against that steel plate, then you can run that bolt down and push your brake shoe closer to your drum .

And that cable is adjustable on both ends but sometimes guys run out of adjustment on just one end cuz they don't climb under the truck and adjust the other end .

I knew that I was going to get that advice. That spring was such a major pain to get in place!
I read the TM time and time again to make sure that they wanted you to have the spring on top of the nut. I even got some pics from someone else on a different thread that shows it on top of the nut. I was hoping that I'd never have to go through that again.

On top of all that we're supposed to be moving camp to a different location.

LowTech said:

I read the TM time and time again

Click to expand...

And therein lies a problem in my opinion, if your TM is printed out, fold it up and put it in the glove box for the next guy .

Climb under there look at it with your own eyes and common Sense and just make it work right .

Remember, instructions are just another person's opinion .