Hey Guys, been struggling with my rear brakes. They constantly loose adjustment and never seem to work the way they are supposed to.

I am planning on overhauling them soon and was looking for some advice on what to replace and some diagrams.

I am planing on replacing the shoes, all the springs and then replacing the auto adjusting mechanism. Does anyone have any other recommendations for replacement parts and also does anyone have some pictures or diagrams to work off of.

Thanks!

89 F350 dually 1-ton zf-5 460

 

I've adjusted mine a few times when they would make a little noise under very light braking, like in a parking lot, etc, thinking they needed to be tightened. They always loosened up again to just drag again under light braking. I think they are designed to engage under heavy braking and be loose as you describe. If you want more light braking feel a disk brake swap may help, but not sure if they really give you more heavy load braking, just more light pedal feedback.

 

New hardware should fix everything, the adjuster gets pretty gunked up with grease, dirt and brake dust.

Word of advice. If you're going to overhaul the brakes and buy any new hardware, BUY EVERYTHING NEW! Buy the springs, the adjuster, everything. When I did my rear drum brakes I bought new drums, shoes, and springs but I did not buy the adjuster kit. Because I tried mixing the factory hardware with the new hardware the tolerances did not fit correctly and the drum would not slide on. Resulted in a lot of frustration until I bought that too and they slid right on.

Just as an example, you should probably buy both kits like this or if you can find one big one with all of it together

Buy Wearever Drum Brake Self-Adjuster Repair Kit 2545 at Advance Auto Parts

Buy Wearever Drum Brake Hardware Combi-Kit 7071 at Advance Auto Parts

Just trying to save you the time that I wasted, I guess it should have been common sense but oh well.

 

I would get all new parts except backing plates.
Also plan on replacing the hub seals if it is a sterling FF. The seals are expensive at around $40. each side plus I would pay a shop to install them.
The bearings are probably fine but inspect/replace if required.
The hardest part will be those heavy shoe hold down springs; they love to eat human fingers. I made a tool to compress them and save my fingers!
Prior to disassembly take some pictures of both sides because drum brakes can be complicated!!

 

If the hub seals are not leaking why would you say plan of replacing them?

 

Nothing lasts forever, and it's quite a bit of work to get to the seals, but it's right in front of you while you have the brakes torn down.. And, why chance ruining the new brake job when a seal starts to seep in a few months, or maybe a year...

Really all I am saying is, it's just good preventive maintenance....

 

Take one side apart at a time, that way you have the other side as a reference