How to adjust rear brakes on 66 c10?

[BOXER957]

I bought all new everything to make my rear drum brakes 100% new. One of the kits has the rubber insert that goes in an adjusting hole that would normally be on the rear of the brake shield. There are no holes on the rear of my brake shields.....How do I adjust them once I have them all back together? Is there some way to access them from the front, or am I supposed to cut a hole on the back of my brake shield for the rubber cover?

[Sharps40]

Clean up yer backing plate, some have a knock out some don't.

Both my 64 and 65 have knockouts on the backing plate that were never knocked out because the OEM drums had oblong holes to access the star wheels on the bottom.

Some of the aftermarket drums from the parts store have knock outs in the face of the drum, some don't. I simply drilled holes in 2 of my drums when I rebuilt the brakes. The other two were from a different chinese plant and I punched out the knock outs.

You won't be doing any brake adjustements beyond 1 million backwards stops till you either pierce the backing plate or the drums at the starwheel. The work is easier to do thru the face of the drum.

Once you can access the star wheels you can get to 98% with the star wheel and a screwdriver then use about 25 to 50 backwards stops to fine tune it that last lil bit.

[Sharps40]

The job that didn't get done before heading to hunting camp was new break drums. A couple are pretty worn, serviceable but need replaced. Orelies and Autozone has them. So, picked up two of the four today to do the rear breaks. A simpler job, no rivets to drill out on the rear hubs and no hubs to pull off either. So, here we go. Safety First.....jack stands and chocks since this is done breaks released and in neutral.





Once the wheels are off, back off the shoes to get them out of the grooves in the drums, otherwise the drums are stuck on and can't be pulled w/o tearing the shoe assemblies from their mounts. Run the star wheel backwards using an old paint can opener to hold the star wheel activating arm out of the way. Once backed off, the drums should come off easy. The driverside drum had rusted to the hub and needed a couple good wacks on the hub to shake it loose after backing off the shoes.



The star wheel adjusting arm that has to be held out of the way to back the star wheel off. Its job is to advance the star wheel, takeing up wear in the breaks at each reverse stop and also to keep the star wheel from backing off. Sort of an advancer and a blocker all in one.


Yep, gota broken break shoe, thats the next job.

The rotton old drum next to the new drum. New drum is much nicer condition but the adjusting hole is still plugged. I tried to knock it out with a punch and hammer, no dice.





So, off to the drill press to remove most of the meat from the knock out tab and then punch it out with a good sturdy stanly flattip scewdriver and a 2.5 lb hammer.



Short work on the knock out tabs.



Lots of motor oil on the drums to keep em from rusting. Nothing fancy by way of degreaser, just some mineral spirits...it degreases just fine and cheep too.



Given the old drum rusted tight to the hub, a bit of axle greese, just a bit, smeared on the hubs so things will separate easy later.



After testfitting both drums, a coat of primer and paint. Fill the corn feeder - sorry if that makes me "Not A Real Hunter" (had two doe on the feeder this AM...goin back out tonight to try and stick em, feeder activated and they ran off!) and fill the bird feeders and get GoodWife work done off the punch list while the paint dries.



Paints dry, setting the shoe gauge to make the rough adjustment on the breaks before installing the drum.



Transfer the ID of the new drum to the OD of the shoes, just snug on the gauge and the drum should slide right on for final adjustment.



Final adjustment is bringing the star wheel up till each drum just locks and backing it off till they are just free. Ya hear the shoes drag, thats okay, its a matter of feel, the wheels don't spin like gyros, I set just a scooch of drag on each drum and then bolt up the wheels.



Final, Final adjustment is about 40eleven backwards stops in the driveway so the star wheel arms can take up the final slack. The pedal is higher and firmer. Mina (Black Shepherd Pup) went on the test ride with me....no worries, back is done.

I get the front drums (same as rear drums, just rivited to the front hubs) tomorrow night and will go thru the front breaks this weekend between sits on the deer stand.

On the Chevys, not so much on the GMCs, the front drums are the same as the rear drums. Just rivited to the hubs on the front. These were original. No one ever bothers to rerivit replacement drums to the hub, after there are six lugs holding it all, whats three additional rivits?

First step is to pull the hub and drum assembly from the spindle, centerpunch each rivit and head for the drill press. I didn't drill all the way thru, just enough to free the drum from hub and down into hub, about 2/3 of the length of the rivit.



If yer a bit off center, a large drill bit run slow cleans off the remaining head of the rivits so you can knock the hub out.



This pair of drums had no knock out tabs at all for shoe star adjusters. So, I drill a pair of holes at an appropriate location (6 oclock on the drum since the star adjusters are located at 6 oclock on the backing plate - ), then knock out the tab between and clean it up to a nice rectangle with a file.



New drum by the old worn out drum...hub and drilled out rivits between. Ready for paint and reassembly.



Inspect the spindles for wear, gauling, overheating, lack of grease, etc. All is well. A bit of goop on the bearing races and its ready for the hub.



The hub installed. See, no rivits holding the drum on. Now, like the rear, I can do a complete break job without having to unseat the bearings and seals. Nice!



I cleaned up each of the front star wheel adjusters and lightly greased them. Like the rear, they were frozen and not functioning to take up wear on backwards stops.



Final adjustmets before putting the wheel back on are the same as for the rear wheels. Again, tighten up to lock the drum then back it off to just free. A test drive will likely show pull to one side or the other. I'll drive it a few days and then make fine adjustments to even it all out.

Pedal is hard as a rock. I made about 40 more backwards stops in the driveway tonight to even things out and out for a short drive. It pulls a bit left on a panic stop the first time or two then evened out some. Like I said, I'll drive it a few days and then make final fine tuneing adjustments. Its all good....48 year old drums gone, new drums on and plenty good breaks.

Thanks. China drums but whatcha gonna do? Only other choice was India drums!!!! Couldn't find any Japan drums, at least they would'a been made of recycled American steel!

I hope Ol John Lee will forgive me. I'll hang onto three of the four originals. They are all between .060" and more over size but would serve in a pinch should a China drum go belly up all of a sudden!

[Sharps40]

Remember, there are left side and right star wheel adjusters. Don't mix em up or ye'll have em gettin looser with each backwards stop. Best just to fix one wheel hub at a time and don't jumble the parts in the parts washer.

[cg285]

Originally Posted by BOXER957

How do I adjust them once I have them all back together? Is there some way to access them from the front, or am I supposed to cut a hole on the back of my brake shield for the rubber cover?

do you reckon the factory adjusted them through a hole? adjust them w/the drum off. quick and easy

[cg285]

btw the lining is on backwards on the pics of the frt brks

[Sharps40]

Yep, it was corrected later in that thread! Short shoe always go's forward.

Got to the other side on that particular job and saw the shoes correct and wound up goin back, unbuttoning the first side and swappin shoes around.

[cg285]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Yep, it was corrected later in that thread! Short shoe always go's forward.

Got to the other side on that particular job and saw the shoes correct and wound up goin back, unbuttoning the first side and swappin shoes around.

i have an employee from cuba. he (gets corrected of course) puts 2 large on one side and 2 small on the other side. says that's how they do it in cuba. hahaha

[Sharps40]

Ol John Lee came to us with a few issues...new shoes reversed on one side was one of em. John Lee Jr had some issues too like loose upper front shock mounts and panhard bar bolts out back....but it all gets fixed eventually and then the motor goes all futz.........

[BOXER957]

Originally Posted by cg285

do you reckon the factory adjusted them through a hole? adjust them w/the drum off. quick and easy

I'm sure they(the factory) didn't. That's why I asked, I didn't know the adjuster worked on a backwards stop also figured the little rubber covers came later and they had some place to install them and I wanted to know where. Thanks for your reply and especially noting the installation of the shoes.

[BOXER957]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Yep, it was corrected later in that thread! Short shoe always go's forward.

Got to the other side on that particular job and saw the shoes correct and wound up goin back, unbuttoning the first side and swappin shoes around.

Thanks Sharps40, I didn't even look at the drums, there may be a place there. I'm so used to adjusting from the back I wouldn't have thought you'd have to pull off the tire and go in from the front. Thanks to you and the other response I have all the info I need. Thins on the front ,thicks on the back, pay attention to the thread direction on my adjusters and which side they go on, adjust through the front and eleventyseven backwards stops and I'm done Thank you for such an informative response, good luck with your deer!

[cg285]

you're wasting your time backing up. adjust it and it's done

[Sharps40]

Wrong. Mine are properly cleaned and lubed. Stopping backwards 10 to 20 times does a fine job of bring up the pedal whenever I notice its lower than usual due to miles traveled/stops made.

Been doing it for years on Chryslers, Fords and Chevy drums. If yer brakes are properly built and maintained, the reverse adjusters do their job spanky nice.

[cg285]

wrong, unless you think the factory backed them up in the parking lot before they loaded them up
if you have to back them up they weren't adjusted correctly.
drive by a dealership or local garage and watch the mechanics backing the vehicles up

[Sharps40]

Looks like you and I got way different views on how stuff works. Of course I believe they back em all up in the lot, I am just about as dumb as that comment would indicate. But mine are adjusted right. Been useing the star wheels for initial adjustment and to quickly/easily take up wear (via reverse stops). Works great, just like the Motors manual says they should.

[Lugnutz65]

Please see my signature and go to the tips and tricks section at the top of the page. Scroll down and you will see how I adjusted the brakes without moving the truck (since it isn't a driver yet).

Basically, Sharps40 shows how to adjust using the star wheel and that way is proper. I did not have the measuring tool that he has and my drums did not have access holes. I simply adjusted the shoes until they had slight friction when sliding the drums on. I did both rear drums that way. Then I jacked up the rear under the center (I recommend jack stands). With the tranny in NEUTRAL, my wife got in the cab and I spun the rear tire in REVERSE while she lightly pressed on the brakes. I could hear and feel the self adjust mechanism clicking on the star wheel. The brakes got tighter and tighter. I did this on both wheels repeatedly until I could not turn them by hand anymore (in reverse). This was done until I could NOT turn the tire while the brake pedal was depressed.

My method is simple and uses the designed self adjust mechanism. The same can be done by driving the truck in reverse and repeatedly pressing the brake pedal, HOWEVER, if the brakes are not close to the proper adjustment setting, then the truck might not stop and you could crash.

Go to this link Tips and Tricks section and you will see the whole explanation.

[cg285]

hahaha. i give up!