I bought new drums for the rear and they will not fit over the shoes. I adjusted the "star wheel" so that its completely contracted, but the fit is still really tight at the top of the drums. The fit at the bottom by the adjuster is fine. I completely loosened the e-brake cable and it didn't make a difference. It appears the shoes are pressed right up against the anchor pin.

Sometimes your backing plates will get a groove in them so you can't tap the shoes down a little.

You could take one side apart and look at it. The grooves can be welded up and ground down, if thats it.

There are spots to put a little grease on the backing plate, so you can move the shoes around a little.

Could you take a couple of small flat screwdrivers and pry the shoes out a little and tap them down.

Rob

Somtimes, even though they both look like they are contacting the top anchor pin and still look like this-----> ( ). They still might be a tad off enough to not allow the drum to go back on. I like to tap them up or down slightly to allow the drum to slide on. If it goes on and it seems to tight, usually, a good wrap with a hammer in a few spots with the installed drum straightens everything out and frees it up. Then you can start adjusting the star wheel from behind.

I pulled, pushed, and banged on those shoes and the drum would not go on, but I maybe on to something. I did a search on this problem on this site and I found that Autozone (where I bought my shoes) was selling s different part number than Napa and the Napa recommended shoes were smaller. I checked into it and sure enough, Autozone sold me a p/n 245 and Napa recommends p/n 242. I picked up some of the 242's from Napa today and I'm going to try them tonight.

Im sure you are too young to know this but in my younger years when I did brake and align. work,we always ground the shoes to fit. It was on a cam grinder and we had to go by a spec. sheet. Brake shoes rarely would let us just slide the drum on.Not a big deal.

Yep that was it. Put on the 242's and the drum slid on nice and easy.

Did you look for those grooves in the backing plates.:) a man wants to inspect that kind of stuff when there off.:)

Rob