Drumbrake rear...

============================= Adjust it so the shoes are dragging the pads. It will not adjust itself.

Tor....I hope you did one wheel at a time when you did the brake job. The parts don't interchange from one side to the other. The brake adjusters have R and L imbossed on the socket and on the self-adjusting lever.

Each side needs to be adjusted using the Star wheel which is accessed through the the bottom of the backing plate (remove rubber seal). Using a screwdriver or similar tool, engage the star wheel and push the tool handle downwards to expand the shoes, until you feel a slight drag on the shoes. After some driving time on the new shoes, the self-adjusters are supposed to keep the shoes adjusted but I've not found them all that reliable. I rely on the parking brake to tell me when it's time to manually readjust the rear brakes. Too much pedal travel to 'set' the brakes, means it's time to adjust them again.

Hope this helps.......

Dave S(Texas)

"Tor Elling Rustad" wrote

Short version... When assembling, turn the screw so the drums just barely slip on over the shoes. Drive back and forth 9 or 10 times, stepping on the brakes firmly each time you're going backwards. You only need to move 5 or 10 feet. This will adjust the brakes.

Long version... Do you remember putting in a wire with a loop on one end and a hook on the other? That's the part that activates the self-adjusting plate. When you drive backwards and step on the brakes, the top of the rear shoe moves away from the mounting post, and because the wire's loop is attached to that non-moving post, the wire gets pulled (imagine the shoe staying still, and the post moving). Since the wire loops around a small bracket on the rear shoe, then hooks onto the spring-loaded adjusting plate at the bottom of the shoe, when the wire moves, it lifts up the adjuster plate. If there is enough movement of the shoe and the wire, the adjusting plate slips into the next notch on the "star-wheel". When you then release the brake pedal, the shoe moves back to the post, the wire gets looser, the adjuster plate is pushed down by its spring, it turns the star wheel a small amount, and the "screw" pushes the bottoms of the shoes apart a tiny bit more. That's all there is to it.