67 c10 rear drums loose

[Chilly178]

Hi on my c10 when I go to put the rear drums on the drum is very loose on the shoes. When I adjust the adjuster out enough for it to be snug the strut bar falls out because it is so loose. Any ideas?

[HO455]

Is this happening with or without the axle installed?

I don't see the piece in John's photo (Member #16. Thanks for the photo.) that the arrow is pointing to in the first photo in your photos. But maybe it's hidden.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

That cross Lever does not go between the shoes. There should be a lever connected to the rear shoe that swings down. The cross lever hooks into that lever & the slot on the other end goes to the front shoe.
You have a mismatch & missing parts. You need to get a manual with some good pictures & directions or get someone that has done these before to help you.

George

[yuccales]

This has been shown before. Hope it helps out.
http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/drumbrake

[HO455]

Originally Posted by yuccales

This has been shown before. Hope it helps out.
http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/drumbrake

That is a great write up on drum brakes.

[Jason Banks]

Without parking brake cables you probably don't need to even worry about installing the strut bar, since it is part of the parking brake system anyway.

The cable pulls on the parking brake shoe lever, that is put on the rear shoe, and pushed the strut forward into the front shoe, spreading it to engage the drum.

[Chilly178]

Thank you for all the replies everyone I will look at some literature. I have some experience with drum brakes but was confused on what was going on. I bought this truck with the shoes replaced like this. I will delete the strut bar for now and swap the shoes around just to get it done and on to the next thing. I removed the parking brake cable because it wasn't all there and was planning on running a automatic but I changed my mind. Eventually I will likely convert the rear to disk brakes down the line when the truck is on the road.

[geezer#99]

Originally Posted by Chilly178

I removed the parking brake cable because it wasn't all there and was planning on running an automatic but I changed my mind. Eventually I will likely convert the rear to disk brakes down the line when the truck is on the road.

The parking brake isn’t just for parking.
It’s the emergency brake. In case you loose all your hydraulic brakes the park brake will get you stopped.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

I had heard to never touch the second side of a working pair until you've got the first one working. That way you can just walk around and see what the working one is supposed to look like. Kinda like spark plugs.

Then again, if someone's already gone into both, you have to go back to pix on the interwebs

[RustyPile]

The following may not apply to all states. State Safety Inspection requires the vehicle to have a working emergency/parking brake. Park position on an automatic transmission does not meet that requirement.

An emergency brake is fully mechanical. It functions totally separate from the hydraulic braking system. As your vehicle's brakes now operate, in the event of a total hydraulic failure, you have NO brakes.