Drum Brake Adjustment

[skokie]

How do you adjust drum brakes?

Thanks

[drink2mny]

there should be a little hole at the bottom of the backing plate to fit a screw driver in..there is a little wheel that you can turn to tighten or loosen the pads against the drum..

[Longhorn Man]

If everything is in good shape, they should adjust on there own.
However, that is a pretty huge IF.

[Woody]

IF and that is a big IF the adjusters are working, back up and hit the brakes repeatedly. that is how they ratchet out to tighten up the shoes. Also some (not all) drums have a small slot in them that you can use a brake adjuster tool (or flat screwdriver) to tighten them up. If they don't have the small slot then you have to take the drum off, tighten, reinstall drum, until you get them where you want them.

[Doug M]

Just got done doing a complete rebuild on my 1970 step with drums. There is no adjustment hole on the backing plates. The adjustment holes are punched on
the drum face and need to be fully punched out. You can then adjust them. Adjust the shoes until there is drag on the drum and then back of two notches or "clicks" you get a far better adjustment than relying on the self adjusters.

[Tx Firefighter]

I was a post office mechanic for years. The old Jeeps were really trying to a guy as far as getting the brakes adjusted right.

An old mechanic taught me a trick. Tighten the adjuster all the way down to seat the shoes on the drum, where you can't turn the wheel at all. Then back them off about 5 clicks or so.

I used to do the "adjust it till it barely drags" method, but this way works better. It centers the shoes in the drum when you cinch them down. Then the loosening up about 5 clicks gives them just enough slack.

[jimfulco]

That's the way I do it.