brakes New Rear Shoes and New Drum - Negative Clearance?

[BenjaminSmith]

I'm installing new shoes and new drum on both sides of my 75 '02.  On one rear brake assembly the drum fit over the shoes, but just barely, and on the other side it is a no go - there's negative clearance of about two millimeters.  I've opened the bleed nipple in case there's back pressure preventing the pistons from fully retracting, released the ebrake cable till completely slack, and still can't get the drum to slide on over the shoes.  Drum ID measures within spec, and shoes seem normal enough.

 

Ideas?  Thanks!

[ray_]

Have you turned the cam which spreads the shoes for adjustment?

 

Cheers,

[BenjaminSmith]

The two eccentric adjusters are completely disengaged, so, yup

 

[ray_]

Post pics.

 

I suppose it's possible you have the wrong wheel cylinders.... or a shoes issue...

 

... or something.

 

Are you certain the shoes are sitting properly? The W spring is in place?

 

Cheers,

[stone02]

Hi,

  sometimes the park brake lever on the rear shoe is too

tight on the rivet that binds it to the actual shoe.  even if

you loosen the cable, sometimes they lever arm does not

move rearward enough. try and move the lever arm back so

that it is almost not visible. this is usually the problem.

you may need to remove the rear shoe and loosen the

rivet point to get everything free.

good luck,

stone

[zinz]

Yep... With new shoes and drums I've found you need to actuate the E-brake lever on the shoes with a screwdriver to put the shoes into the most retracted position. You may need to back off the E-brake adjustment nuts a lot to get enough slack to accomplish this. 

 

They will fit. 

 

Ed

[ibewebbman]

i fought this recently...20 minutes at a time 'cause thats all I could take before I considered breaking stuff...every day for longer than I care to admit- checked and rechecked everything over and over. considered all options including swapping to disks, selling the car etc. In the end it was the parking brake cables - the PO had cut the threaded end off the cables at the handbrake for an unknown reason...so even though it appeared the cable was totally slack ...it was not and I had even "confirmed" numerous times that there did not appear to be any tension on the shoe arm - so yeah they will fit, but barely and only if everything is completely dialed in.

[TobyB]

When the shoes are worn and the drums have been turned,

the parking brake cables start to poke out of the rubber boot.

Add some stretched cables, and it gets annoying.

 

So the quick fix is to cut the adjustment thread off.

 

t

 

['76mintgrün'02]

here is another quick fix for that problem, if you do not want to cut the cables.

the inner tube and rubber cap keep them from poking through the boot.

[BenjaminSmith]

All's well that ends well.  The problem was in the brake cylinder - the pistons wouldn't retract far enough (for unknown reasons) to allow the drum over the shoes.  New cylinder, no interference.

 

Thanks for all the replies!