Brake help

[WillWagner]

Took the left side apart tonite after work, All looked good, bearings, wheel cylinders, springs and all the little hardware. Cleaned, packed the bearings, installed the new shoes, new seal. Backed the adjusters all the way off, top and bottom ones, but the drum was very tight going on. Could only get max of .010 clearence on the rear shoe and it drags at the lower right area all the way around. The front seems fine. I have read the TMs, a few times. Anyone had this issue? How many times can you take the hub off w/o replacing the seal again? Help me

 

[Recovry4x4]

The shoe thing sounds a little weird but the seals are fairly durable and shouldn't be effected if you have to take it all back apart. How well is the seal seated on the spindle? I've encountered and issue where the brakes were all over the place as far as ajustment and I found that I must have had a burr behind a bearing. Until I got that seated squarly, the drum was warbling all over the place.

 

[WillWagner]

The seal is seated onto the spindle so it is just below the level of the part it presses onto. I snugged the bearings up with just the inner nut. When I backed the adjusters off, the bottom turned, but just seemed to move the shoe up and down, not in and out. I looked in the TM and don't have a good pic of the lower eccentric adjuster. Is there something in it that can hang up and cause this problem? I'm thinking I should pull iot back off and maybe swap the shoes front to back?

 

[acetomatoco]

Are they commercially relined shoes or originals..?? I would suspect lining thickness and concentricity.

 

[WillWagner]

Don't know. The numbers on the side of the lining from the new shoe is the same as what's left of the old one.

 

[m-35tom]

the bottom adj is just an eccentric, you may need to turn it further or with the drum off to move the ends of the shoes togeather

 

[emmado22]

Did you remove the nut that is on the bottom adjusters? That needs to come off/ loosened up so you can turn the adjuster with your 1/2 inch wrench....

 

[Scrounger]

I’ll give this one a try. Yes I have heard of this. The book calls for .010 at 10 o'clock and 2 o’clock, .020 at 8 o’clock and 4 o’clock. That is in a perfect world. The first thing to check for when installing new brakes is does the lining “fit” in the drum of the truck. By that when the shoes are placed in the drum is the lining flat against the drum. If not there needs to be a little “adjustment” on the shoe. This problem usually occurs when using relined brakes with new drums; however it can happen when using old parts. The shoe takes the shape of the old drum and it doesn’t quite fit the new drum. The solution is to stand the shoe up in a press and push the ends in. That will make the shoe more of a smaller round shape. The other thing to remember is that new linings will get a little larger after they have been heated, so it is best to leave a little room when making the first adjustment.

 

[WillWagner]

Well, figured it out. For some reason, the wheel cyls weren't in all the way in. Noticed the upper adjusters backed off, but the shoes weren't touching them. Pushed them in, all is fine. Got an OK adjustment, tried doing it as per the TM, but no matter what, always had a shoe rubbing. Just backed the adj. off a tad...no more troubles. It's all together, stops great with no more squeals. Bad news is I ordered another axle worth of shoes! Oh well, guess i'll use them some time.

 

[m-35tom]

you sometimes have to have the bleeder open to let the air out so the cyls will let the shoes go in.....