Caliper Left Side

Caliper Left Side

Caliper Left Side
adjustiong rear drum brakes? 75 chevy truck?

I just heard that the rear drums were self adjusting, but Im figuriing a 30 year old truck, they arent going to. could the rears need adjusted with these symptoms?

new master cylinder
new booster
new left and right side calipers and pads
all lines bled proper
pedal goes past the halfway point before any response in braking.

Self-adjusting brakes are designed to adjust when the brakes are applied when backing up. If you don't backup much they don't adjust. Dirt and rust can also keep the self-adjusters from working properly. Cleaning the shoes, backing plates and replacing the hardware kits may be needed. Here are some drum brake basics.

Apply and hold the pedal. If it creeps down you have a leak. If there are no visable leaks, the leak may be internal in the master cylinder.

Brakes are spongy and required a lot of pressure to increase the braking force from the first application. Also may pull to one side or the other. Air in the system, hydraulic system needs to be bled.

Brake pedal travels too far before applying. Too much freeplay in the pushrod. Adjust the pushrod connection to the brake pedal lever.

Brake pedal travels too far, but comes up when the pedal is pumped. Brakes need to be adjusted.

Self-adjusting drum brakes are adjusted by inserting a brake spoon through the adjusting hole in the backing plate and rotating a star adjuster. (a few vehicles have this hole in the drum. You will also need a stiff wire or narrow screwdriver to move the adjuster out of the way when you back the star adjuster off. Adjustment is made by rotating the star adjuster while rotating the drum until the brakes stop the drum from rotating. The adjuster is the backed off 4-6 clicks until the shoes have just a slight drag on the drum.

If you haven't done this before have a professional do it or have someone who knows what their doing help you. You can mess up on a lot of things that will cause you an inconvenience. Mess up on brakes and it can seriously hurt or kill you or someone else.