I tore into the rear brakes on my truck a couple days ago, because there was a sound in the drivers side drum and I couldn't tell what it was. When I got it all opened up, I found that when my e-brake cable got cut when getting new pans put in, the lever had slipped between the shoe and the drum, and was rubbing on the drum a bit.

But that was the least of my problems.

I noticed that the shoes were wearing kind of funny, and I found out why. About 4k miles ago I did a full brake job including cylinders, and apparently messed something up in when I was putting them back together. The little cable that is part of the self adjust system is preventing the rearward facing shoe from moving at all. That in turn caused problems with the forward facing shoe because the adjuster couldn't do it's job, so the shoe was only contacting the drum on at the top 2-3" of shoe.

About the only difference I can see from what I did as opposed to what I see in the net, is I ran the cable over the hold down nail instead of under it. Honestly though, is that enough of a difference in length to cause this many problems?

Here you can see the difference in wear.


And here you can see how the cable goes


--

Thoughts?
Thanks
Jameson

 

How was the cable preventing the shoe from moving? I have hard time believing that is possible let alone likely.

 

The cable mounts at the top of the backing plate, runs around a guide mounted on the shoe, and then goes and hooks to the self adjust lever. Just sitting the cable is taut, and when the brakes are applied the shoe tries to move out, which pulls the cable, which in turn pulls that stop lever up into the self adjust screw.

 

Yeah, I know that's how it's supposed to work, but what was happening before you fixed it?
EDIT you're saying the only difference you fixed was where the cable passed by the nail? That really shouldn't make much if any difference at all, certainly not enough to stop the shoe.

Is the rear shoe worn on the bottom but not the top?

Does the adjuster and bottom of the shoes move front to back rather easy?

You should be able to move the rear shoe either by hand or with the parking brake lever and it turn the adjuster.

I'm thinking you should get new adjusters but more so new cables, they look to be too long/stretched out. The adjusting lever is too low on the adjuster, under it instead of along side it.

Got someone that can step on the brake for you while you hold the shoes? If so have them do it, you should be able to slide the top of the shoes front to back with it pushing through the wheel cylinder.

 

the adjuster is backwards .. Swap it end for end .. The adjuster threaded tip should be towards the front of the truck ..

Passenger Side --> Front



Drivers side? <-- Front



Driverside <-- Front

 

The cable is loose because the upper cable got cut in half when I had new floor pans welded in, so there is no tension on the cable. Which is what caused the e brake arm to ride up on the side of the shoe.

I've got to replace that adjuster anyway, so I'll make sure I get it going in the right way

Edit:
Checking out the new adjuster here at work, I can see why that was causing my problems. At least, just from messing with this thing I think I know what the issue was.

I'll get it put back together the right way tonight and report back what happens.



Thanks for the help!
-Jameson