I have a stock 1964 Chevelle with the original drum brakes. I seem to be having trouble keeping them adjusted. After adjusting them, they work great, but a day or two later I'm back to them pulling one way or the other and squealing. I've done this 3 times now. Any advice? Am I missing something? Do I have to drive in reverse for the auto-adjustment? Is there anything you can think of. My wife uses the car as her daily driver so I want her stopping safely.

Thanks,

Baron

what condition are the drum in? grooves will make them pull. also any visible leaks on the wheel cyls or fluid or grease on the shoes? all these things will make a difference. the lever that sits against the star adjuster should keep them from backing off. i would take them apart and make sure everything is clean and a little bit of high temp grease where it is needed (mainly inside the star adjuster). make sure everything is sanitary and put em back together. the whole assembly (brake shoes and all springs etc) should be able to move back and forth a little with the drum off the car. then adjust them till you can just barely slide the drum back on. that will get you pretty close. a couple more clicks through the backing plate to get the adjustment on the money. backing up and hitting the brakes should keep them adjusted through normal driving from then on out for quite a while.

Thanks for your quick response. All the lines and cylinders were replaced a couple of years ago. Everything looks clean as far as grease or leaky wheel cylinders. The drums may have some grooves. What would cause them to work great right after the adjustment and then not?

as the pads wear into the grooves, they will tend to grab a bit.

Would you turn the drums, change the shoes or both? Do you think that would do it?

Thanks again.

if ya have enough material left in the drums you can have them turned. i would have given ya the set i threw away about 6 months ago when i converted to front discs. too bad they are gone. on the other hand, i bought new rear drums at the local auto zone. they were not much. and plenty material to turn later as things start to wear. if you are looking for perfect brakes out of drums, then yes i would replace the shoes. otherwise, i figure they would wear in eventually, just not sure if they would groove your new (or freshly turned) drums or not.

Thanks again.

First, are the self adjusters installed correctly? If not, this could cause a problem. Please post back and let us know.

How can I tell if the self-adjusters are installed correctly?

Couple of things:

- The "star" wheels should be rearward.
- The cross-spring that ties the bottoms of the shoes together can be installed 4 ways... 3 of them are wrong! The correct way is when the long end "bridges over" the star wheel (NOT touching the teeth).. allowing the star wheel to turn un-impeded.
- The lever that trips the star wheel shouldn't be fouled by a spring/etc. - it should rest against the star wheel and pivot freely.
- You should be able to (by hand) spin the "star wheels" downward - and the actuator lever act as a ratchet/one-way stop. The star wheel shouldn't turn upward without pulling the lever outward.
- Turning the star wheel downward should expand the shoes... and lengthen the star wheel assembly.

I will take a look this weekend and double check that everything is assembled correctly. Is there anything else I should look for while in there?

Thanks for the response.

my Nova was like that until i got the front discs on it- but i quickly figured out that if i just use the brakes to come to a complete stop every time i backed up, they would stay pretty well adjusted. about once every 2 weeks or so, i'd do a few hard stops in reverse to get the pedal back up where it was supposed to be.
i know a lot of people that never even bother to come to a stop when they back up- they just jam it in "D" while it's still rolling back and hit the gas to go forward.
these are the same people that wonder why their u-joints go out after 20,000 miles and their ring gear makes a whining noise when they let off the gas.

but i quickly figured out that if i just use the brakes to come to a complete stop every time i backed up, they would stay pretty well adjusted. about once every 2 weeks or so, i'd do a few hard stops in reverse to get the pedal back up where it was supposed to be.

Yup.. that's usually the problem. We've been spoiled by front discs.

Those hard stops in reverse are actually what causes the shoe assemblies to rock/twist inside the drums. This makes the adjuster lever "ratchet" up a few teeth on the star wheel, pre-loading it. The next forward stop twists everything back - and the lever pushes down on the star wheel (if it can) adjusting the brakes.

(As a little kid I'd wait around for my dad to finish a brake job just to ride along on the "test drive". I got such a kick out of going backwards and him hitting the brakes hard a few times. The tires would screech and the car would bounce around. Hadn't a clue why this was done, but it was fun to ride along...)