It doesn't hurt to jack the truck up, pull the wheels and have a looksee every now and then. If you haven't done that for a long time then you might have some surprizes. If there is no meat left on the shoes or if the shoes are worn unevenly to the extreme then its time for new ones. Check your drums as well for uneven wear. The ratchet pawl (little toothed wheel) at the bottom of the brake assembly is the manual/auto adjustment. Backing up and slamming on the brakes should set the brakes. Sometimes the auto-adjust feature doesn't work well and lubricating the ratchet assembly with Never-Seize (graphite) helps. I usually do it manually by tightening the little wheel until I get only one revolution out of the big wheel,  .
I just did my front brakes today (discs). The wear indicators were making noise the last few days so I figured I better do something before my rotors got scored. Baby's got a new pair of shoes and the rotors don't need turning. Preventative medicine. Too many people don't pay attention and later end up paying big money.
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1970 GMC 1500 Custom
Original 350/TH350
Victoria, BC, Canada
You can wish in one hand and crap in the other.
See which one gets filled first.
Last edited by Southpa; 05-30-2003 at 03:46 AM.
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