I don't believe the adjusters will bring out of adjustment brakes into adjustment, I think the idea is that they maintain adjustment...... you have to adjust them upon assembly.
Well, sort of yes and sort of no.
The auto adjusters work by a "clearance" type of deal.
The way it works is when there's enough clearance/wear for the slaves to push the shoes out a certain amount, it pulls the adjuster arm up on to the next "cog" on the adjuster wheel. The adjuster arm is pulled up because one end of the shoes are "fixed" (ie: the pivot end) and the other ends are "floating " on the slave pistons. When the pressure is released from the slave cylinder the springs pull the shoes back in. When the shoes are pulled back in, the adjuster arm rotates (pushed down or up, depending on the design) the adjuster to take up the clearance/wear.
When you consider how (relatively) slowly shoes wear, you can see how there's not a lot of adjustment usually needed. Big movements on waaay out of adjustment shoes from the get go could either take a long time to tighten up, or maybe never.
Drum brakes kind of warp your mind thinking about it until you see it in action. Then it makes perfect sense....
