Brake Shoe Question

[leegreen]

Self energizing brakes: the front shoe tries to rotate and pushes on the adjuster link and forces the bottom of the rear shoe into contact with the drum. The rear shoe does most of the braking and the front shoe has a shorter lining so the brakes are not too sensitive and lock up easily. If you get them reversed the rear brakes will lock up too easily.


Does it bind up a lot or just drag a bit? Drum out of round? Rusty ridge at edge interfering with new shoes? Where is contact patch scuffing show up on the shoes? you want it in middle of shoe, preferably a nice long patch showing the shoes and drum are close to same radius and a nice wide patch across the shoe showing drum and shoe are parallel. You don't want contact patch at ends of shoe, brakes will be grabby, likely to tear up the shoe before they wear in. If only one shoe has a contact patch or if the drum binds in one direction but not the other there is something wrong in how things are held to the backing plate

ebrake - is the lever on properly? I don't see as much of it showing from behind shoe as I'd expect. if you pull it on with drum off does it spread the shoes off the pivot at top?
Adjust the shoes both sides for light drag, go stomp the brakes or put on ebrake a couple times to center up shoes and check adjustment again. If you have a good high brake pedal the ebrake should work, the cables only need adjusting if they are replaced or someone cranked them tighter to make the ebrake work rather than adjust the shoes at wheels.