Rear drum brake adjustment

I put new rear drums+shoes on my 04 AC this weekend and just want to make sure I get them adjusted correctly to avoid any problems down the road (excessive front brake wear, weak stopping power, etc). Right now when I press the parking brake at low speeds (5-10 mph) I have a considerable stopping distance and with little throttle I can get the truck moving, however it does hold. The parking brake pedal also takes 12 clicks to bottom out. Should I give it time and let the auto adjuster do it’s thing or do I need to jack it back up and manually adjust the star wheel? If so, how much resistance/scrubbing is necessary?

 

Is your parking brake cable "tight/taut" with very small amount of slack? When not engaged.

There is a tensioner on the underside of the truck pretty much right below the drivers side seat.

 

Also, parking brake levers on your rear axle are free, and not bound?

 

It has a small amount of slack, but nothing I would consider to be excessive. The levers are also free and working properly. Truck is pretty much rust free being in Florida and Georgia all of its life.

 

If memory serves with the truck jacked up, and wheels free there should be a small amount of drag from the shoes. If you think it needs adjustment you can adjust the tension on the shoes to small drag.

If you know for a fact that the star wheels are being actuated by the parking brake you could just get a good left leg work out, and work it back and forth. Engage, and disengage. I'll attach a video soon showing how it all works with the parking brake. I'm on company pewter, and can't access youboob.

 

When testing the levers I got a few clicks out of the star adjusters, so I am assuming the mechanism is working. Cleaned and greased adjuster assembly as well when installing new brakes. Should I auto adjust with the wheels off the ground or do a tow mater around the neighborhood?

 

I have this video set to start at 2:29 when I started actuating the parking parking brake so I could watch the video and see how it worked myself because I am a one man band with no help usually.

https://youtu.be/1fGZTmzlxWk?t=2m29s

I figure out, and explain the whole thing in this video. I'm sure there are better, quicker videos out there, but I never found any that showed the mechanism working when I looked for one. So I made one! Lol

 

If you got a few clicks then it all should be good. They will self adjust until proper tension on their own if everything is good.

Personally, to avoid fuck ups I just worked the parking brake back and forth until the distance to engage the parking brake lever in the cab was reduced. That's how I knew they were adjusted properly.

 

I often forget about the parking brake so when I remember I just work it back and forth again until I feel like they are in adjustment.

 

Good post on the video, that was pretty cool to see. And by working the parking brake back and forth you mean applying and releasing the pedal, correct? And I’m with you brother, I work by myself unless my old man decides he wants to sit and talk while I work.

 

Yes. Engage, and disengage the parking brake in the cab. In the whole video I count the "clicks" on the parking brake to see how far it travels to do what. I can't recall what it was right now, but it's in there somewheres.

Thanks by the way.

 

I guess I’ll be pumping my parking brake tomorrow on lunch break haha. Just want to have my brakes set as good as possible, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my truck lol. I’ll update tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions and have a good evening.