ernjohn
Newbie
Don't recall seeing much about this issue (on the internet at least) so hopefully this'll help out someone in the future. On all the previous vehicles I've owned or worked on in the past that had rear drums, I never ran across this problem before. got a serious case 'newb' from this.
Just had a problem that was driving me nuts... 2 years ago I put new parking brake cables (ac delcos) on the truck just after I bought it. Fast forward a few weeks ago where I did some work on the rear brakes, I welded up the grooves that had worn into the backing plates cleaned out the brake dust and replaced the shoes and drums - the adjusters were smooth and all the springs and hardware were fine. I had adjusted them properly before putting the wheels back on. After about 50 miles the adjusters had adjusted to point of locking up the rear brakes completely.
Backed off the adjusters and made it a few miles home. the next day pulled the drums off and looking things over found nothing missing, broken, or otherwise off except that it seemed the driver's side wheel cylinder wasn't completely retracting but the pass side seemed fine. probably unrelated to the adjusters but since I was in there again I might as well change the wheel cylinder and rear hose - the hose was of an unknown age and didn't look too good. Got it back together and drove it around town and again the adjusters were still overly sensitive but not quite as bad - made it about 75miles before I had to back 'em off yet again.
I pulled the drums off for a third time and found the parking brake cable seemed to be under more tension than it should have. The plastic coating on the cable up by the frame, was cracked and there were a few spots of bare cable showing - not what I'd expect from them only being 2 years old. After spraying the cables with some silicon spray plus a good greasing with syl-glide and working the cables back and forth everything seems to be working properly now. Since the truck is an auto, very rarely do I need to use the parking brake - maybe the infrequent use was also part of the problem, idk. but I do know I'll be keeping where the cable runs into the sheath lubed up from now on.
Just had a problem that was driving me nuts... 2 years ago I put new parking brake cables (ac delcos) on the truck just after I bought it. Fast forward a few weeks ago where I did some work on the rear brakes, I welded up the grooves that had worn into the backing plates cleaned out the brake dust and replaced the shoes and drums - the adjusters were smooth and all the springs and hardware were fine. I had adjusted them properly before putting the wheels back on. After about 50 miles the adjusters had adjusted to point of locking up the rear brakes completely.
Backed off the adjusters and made it a few miles home. the next day pulled the drums off and looking things over found nothing missing, broken, or otherwise off except that it seemed the driver's side wheel cylinder wasn't completely retracting but the pass side seemed fine. probably unrelated to the adjusters but since I was in there again I might as well change the wheel cylinder and rear hose - the hose was of an unknown age and didn't look too good. Got it back together and drove it around town and again the adjusters were still overly sensitive but not quite as bad - made it about 75miles before I had to back 'em off yet again.
I pulled the drums off for a third time and found the parking brake cable seemed to be under more tension than it should have. The plastic coating on the cable up by the frame, was cracked and there were a few spots of bare cable showing - not what I'd expect from them only being 2 years old. After spraying the cables with some silicon spray plus a good greasing with syl-glide and working the cables back and forth everything seems to be working properly now. Since the truck is an auto, very rarely do I need to use the parking brake - maybe the infrequent use was also part of the problem, idk. but I do know I'll be keeping where the cable runs into the sheath lubed up from now on.
