Read drum brake help

[Shmee1984]

My truck did that on my 6 lug and although the backing plate was tight, the part at the bottom of the backing plate where the shoes seated in, which had 2 rivets holding it, were loose. I drilled them out and put bolts in with locktight and it has been fine for a couple years now. You shouldn't be able to easily move your shoes around with all the springs on, except a little on the wheel cylinder side.

Good idea, but it's a different system. There are no rivets Bolts holding the plate on are tight. Shoes are seated properly on the lands.

 

[Shmee1984]

How about switching the rear drums around and see if the problem moves to the other side?

I've tried that. Hell, I've even moved pads around.

 

[Shmee1984]

FRICKIN FIXED!!!!! WOOO WHOOOOO!!!!. ok everyone. Figured that I better provide an update in case it can help anyone in the future. This is the first set if drum brakes that I've ever worked on, so It was definitely a learning experience. After getting both drums turned, they said that they weren't really bad. Just took a hair off of both.In the past, I thought that it was the drivers side giving me grief. I could take the tire and drum off, back off the adjuster, and the problem would go away... for a day or so. Once the adjuster worked it's way back, problem would persist. This morning i took a good hard look at the passenger side. I noticed that I had pretty defined grooves on the brake backing plate. Additionally, the parking brake lever was slightly bent to the point where it was dragging hard on the attached shoe. Bought a file and got rid if the grooves on the backing plate. I put the lever in a vice and gave it a tweak. Once reinstalled (after putting brake grease on the lands) the parking brake lever now isnt hung up on the shoe. I took extra care to adjust the adjustment so that the brake was just barely not dragging in the drum. Took Sweet Melissa (name of my truck) for a spin. Absolutely perfect braking now! Got her home, hopped out of the truck, and clicked my heels in the air. Havent been this happy in a long time..... after two years of losing sleep over this I'm ecstatic. Thanks everyone for the tips!!!

 

[Jglew82]

Good job! Sounds like you could use a celebratory beer.

 

[Shmee1984]

Good job! Sounds like you could use a celebratory beer.

More like 12. Haha