Drum Brake Adjustment

[Outshine2]

Sorry for the long post... here goes... My bronco darts to the right pretty badly whenever the brakes are hit hard ( : yes I have 4-wheel drums). A light or moderate stop stays perfectly straight. Ok, I figured it must be my front right tire... I tried adjusting accordingly and here is what I found...

I found that most of my wheels have "sticking points" in their revolutions. During half of their roatation the tire will turn freely, but during the other half it will drag. I had the brakes refreshed a few months ago (new cylinders, pads, hardware)... the only thing I didn't get new is drums... could they be causing this problem? Seems all things considered I should have constantly the same friction throught the entire revolution of the tire.

Front disks should be on the way in a couple of weeks ;D But I am trying to at least get the rears ready for then!

 

[americanhorses]

There out of round like mine.

 

[thegreatjustino]

Drum brakes should be adjusted so the shoes are just barely touching the drums. When you jack up the wheel in question and spin it around, you should hear a scratching noise consistently in the same place in the revolution. This is the shoe rubbing on the drum. Somewhere between 2.5 and 5 revolutions is where you want your adjustment.

 

[Outshine2]

Isn't it a bad thing to have it only coming in contact at one spot in the revolution? The drums I have worked with before seem to have uniform contact throughout the entire revolution... It sounds like my drums are "out of round" like Americanhorses said, can this be solved by having them turned?

I backed off the rears as suggested until there was just a slight contact at one point in the revolution and it was like I lost my rears completely, the pedal didn't have much pressure until halfway down and if the road was even a little wet it would seem like I was powerbraking at every stop (The front tires would keep the vehicle stopped but the rears would start slowly spinning) unless I really pushed down hard on the pedal... it was far too imbalanced to the front I think...

Should I get my drums turned, or is this just how it goes with drum brakes?

 

[americanhorses]

get em turned. whoever does the work will tell you if they are within safe tolerances. If I don't get a DB setup by the time these shoes wear out I'll be looking for some drums. They've been turned twice. The shop who did them is a good friend, said after this tossem'.

 

[badnewsbronco]

i had the same problem 4 new drums from tom's, no more problem