rear brake adjustment

Ok went to adjust rear brakes on my truck(89 1 ton dually) and of course the adjusters were frozen and the shoes were a solid 1/4" from the drums. So took out axles, etc etc, got adjusters working, anti seized them. Now my question is what is the proper adjustment? Different manuals seem to say different things on this? One gives a measurement from drum to shoe, another is something like get it tight then back off 22 times(assuming i time is 1 notch not one turn) and the last book says the old standby crank it until it contacts then back off til it's not.

Now I've always adjusted rear brakes the last way, jack up one side, adjust til it rubs then back off til it's clear. I've never had a dually before, am I going to screw anything up doing it this way? So far the brakes feel about 1000 times better, pedal feel is way up, but my concern is that I may be hitting back brakes before fronts kick in don't want to mess up those drums they're pricey :)

Reply to
89GMC
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The backs always hit before the fronts, its one of the functions of the combination valve, which is to hold of the front brakes till the wheel cylinders over come the return springs.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

I would suggest that given its age that you pull drums and turn the lips out of them that are surely present (no need to turn whole drum) and disasemble and lube adjuster hardware. Tighten them until the just start to drag and then step on brake hard to seat and recenter them in drum and then check again and set them to just barely starting to drag. No cause for concern because drum expand with heat and they will not drag long or enough to cause a problem yet it will give you the highest possible pedal this way and best overall brake feel and function too.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Reply to
SnoMan

Ahhh didn't know that, makes sense if you think about it though and explains why my pedal feel was so crappy before. Thanks for the info, gonna call it done then... feels good stops good adjusters now workin too.

Whitelightn> >

Reply to
89GMC

Thanks for the info snoman, sounds like what i was always taught on rear brake adjustment and that's how I did em, always worked for me in the past. No lips on the one drum I had to take off to free up the adjuster, but I've only had the truck for 3k so no idea how old the drums are or when there were turned last, but thanks for the heads up either way.

SnoMan wrote:

Reply to
89GMC

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