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adjusting rear drum brakes

Jonny-K5

Jonny-K5

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so the drums are supposed to be self adjustable right? i've never had a car that this actually worked. what i've been told is you have to go in reverse at 15+mph, then hit the brakes. that action is supposed to make the levers move.never has worked for me. plus 15+mph in reverse seems kinda unsafe.how does everyone here adjust them? my k5's rear brakes are getting loose, and i just had to replace my g/f's front brakes on here toyota causs the rears werent adjusted tight enough. front overheated and warped.
any tips or hints would be great
 
pop out the plugs on the backside of the brake drum, spin the star wheel till u see the shoes making contact with the drum(you may have to pop out 2 other plugs to see the shoes), your good to go, I tighten mine every 3 or 4 weeks usually......actually I meant to do it this weekend, crap.....
 
i know how to adjust them manually, but they are supposed to be "self adjusting"
im sure the car manufacturers dont expect single woman to jack up thier cars once a month to tighten the brakes.
 
o haha, sorry, misread your post, I know an old honda we had, you pulled the emergency brake on slightly and backed up, that made em adjust, wouldnt adjust just backin up without the handbrake on.
 
k20 said:
o haha, sorry, misread your post, I know an old honda we had, you pulled the emergency brake on slightly and backed up, that made em adjust, wouldnt adjust just backin up without the handbrake on.
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ohhh, maybe thats the trick.

btw i just looked under my k5, no plugs whatsoever on the backing plates. i remembered not seeing them last time i did a brake job, just went out there to make sure.

so when you adjusted them on the honda, did you pump the brakes or just push them once for every time to put it in reverse.
 
Bubba Ray Boudreaux said:
Not unless you know what you are doing. I recently had my Crown Vic up to 50 in reverse......................... :D
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haha, well we all dont have police training. my point was you cant expect your average housewife to do this, or manually adjust them either. i think the ebrake trick might be the missing link to my problem
 
it was pull the emergency brake on and back up. The brakes would be dragging of course, and they would tighten up. If I remember right it was only like 3 clicks on with the brake, so it wasnt really tight, but it was more than the first click.
 
The plugs may be in the form of metal punchouts that you have to knock inside the drum, pull the drum off, remove the piece of metal and then put a rubber plug in. My sighting holes on my axle had little metal plugs, and the hole at the adjuster wheel had a rubber plug, but all of them had been previously punched out.
 
hmmm, i see the sight holes that could be punched out to see the shoes, but where the adjusting star is there is just solid steel. :dunno:
 
What I've done is pop the drum off, and use the star adjuster until I can JUST get the drum back on over the pads. Screw the backside adjuster, too hard to get to, see, etc. IMO anyways. Good idea to look at the pads in any case, right?

It wouldn't be something like going 15mph and hitting the brakes in reverse, thats not "safe" for a manufacturer to recommend, and certainly not "self adjusting". It may have to do with just backing up and USING the brakes, which of course is an everyday occurence.

A service manual may explain this operation in detail, can't find a description online.
 
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the adjusting stuff on my 94 worked nicely i must say, to the point where i wore down the brakes quite evenly to the rivets (little fatter at bottom). i never atually backed up to adjust the brakes, just hit the brakes kinda hard backing out of a parking spot here and there, not hard enough to lock up the front just a quick "oh crap almost hit that pole" kidna stop, not "oh crap almost hit a bently" kinda stop.

but than again i might have been lucky with my axle, which i managed to blow up since, so i should check my new rear end, crap.
 
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