Ack.... This sucks

I now own my grampas old 82 f150, 4wd, 302, automatic (er)... We did a rear brake job this summer, and never got them right again... Parking cables are good, pads are brand new, new wheel cylinder and I have a new spring kit and adjusting screws

I think I need a hardware kit, because what my hayes manual is calling a "parking brake link" is missing the spring, and retainer. This is really frustrating, I cant seem to get it together again.
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heres a really short story part... We never got the drivers side back together right. My nonmechanical uncle stepped in, and replaced 1/2 of the springs. It made a squeeking noise, and he said that "brakes must be dragging" and left it like that for 2 months (truck sits alot). I got my lisance thursday, and have been driving it around for about 10 miles... The "squeeking" turned into a light grinding. I stopped about 2 miles from home, and popped off the passengers side drum, in a kmart parking lot, at 10 PM (thought thats where the noise was comming from... ugg)
Couldnt find anything, so i put it back together, and hoped i wasnt ripping too much up.

My house is in sight, i go over the rail road tracks... The noise goes from a grinding, to a horribal scraping... 30 sec later, i pull into the driveway, and there it sits (now on jackstands). took it apart, drivers side adjusting screw fell out, and is now really mangled... It also scraped the crap outta the pads
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SO far, ive gotten a new spring kit, new pads, and a pair of new adjusting screws...

Whenever I get one spring on, the last one I put on flys off, and tries to kill me. Does anybody know where I can find a write up for doing the brakes on a drivers side drum??? Not a hayes "reassembly" crap, a genuine write up

I'm really pissed off right now, ive been working on one side for 3 and a half hours

Whats in a hardware kit??? Can anybody tell me what I did wrong? I'm sorry for the long post, I need help... I have a job interview thursday, immediatly after school, and I CANT use my moms car (she'll be gone)

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not the most book smart or social person ever... Im mechanicaly inclined and my family has an engineering backround

Id really like back brakes. Do you think id hurt anything If i took everything out of the drivers side rear brake drum, and drove it for <10 miles? No big hills, usually civilized traffic patterns

Thanks alot, the stupid 16 year old needs help
~Nate

 

Don't remove and try to drive it. The rear drums are alike on each side except the self adjusting screw is right threads on one side and left hand threads on the other. My mind just went blank as to which side is which. Anyhow, take one wheel off and compare with the other one. There are three springs on the drum brakes not counting that funny spring on the parking brake rod. two at the top to pull the shoes away from the drum and one at the bottom for the self adjusting mechanism.

 

I didnt take both of them off.... but they were reassembled by my aging grandfather in the same fasion...

Right now, I get braking power from NEITHER side... Im making a new post, unless you can tell me which spring goes where... 2 red, one blue

Heres a pic of them... I have it where the blue is at the bottom, long red on the right (twords back of vehical), short red on the left (twords frount of vehical) This is on the drivers side of the vehical

Its consistaint to the one on the passenger side in the springs location to the respectfull end of the vehical



I dont know if i even had back brakes when I got the truck... Its got brand new parts within 4 months...

Rebuild master cylinder, new flex lines, new hard lines, new proportioning valve (from a junkyard&cleaned up), new wheel cylinders, new springs, and new pads

WTF AM I DOING WRONG???
I tested for braking power with it in nutral, transfer case in nutral, and the engine running. I also have a very stiff pedal (compaired to other vehicals ive driven... 04 grand prix, 76 Mercedes, 95 Camaro, 95? cougar, 2002 denali, 89 trofieo, and the DE's saturns)

I get no rear brakes, on either side... help?

 

I'm not sure how ur year compares to my '88. But they take quite a bit of coaxing to get the springs and everything together. When I did mine it took forever, I'm not sure how many hours, but the stress involved made me go through abt an entire can of chew real quick. I bought the hardware kit for mine, if I remember right you get all the springs ya need, the pins that hold the shoe on, and a couple other little parts. I did mine wrong the first time, and they fell apart while I was driving. Chewed everything up, found peices of springs laying in the bottom of the drum along with half the other parts. I know how frustrating it can be, I've abt lost my eye with those stupid springs. I wish I had a write up for ya, I figured it out eventually with trial and error with the order things go back together.

 

Any Ford car or light duty truck with drum brakes will be like yours if you could convince someone to let you pull the wheel and drum and take a look. Chilton's manual has pics of the assembly.

 

Would a 73 mustang garande (sp) have the same setup? Its an 11 inch drum, right? The max diamiter is 11.2 something, so it should be an 11" ?


can anybody just snap a picture of theirs if theyve got new springs (can see color)? Even a camara phone?

Its snowing out now... moms pissed that the old truck's sitting in the garage when her 2004 grand prix is getting snowed on after I just washed&waxed what I thought was the last of winter away... gdmmit

tks alot, I could really use any help I can get

blue spring, short red spring, and long red spring... anybody remember?
~Nate

 

One big thing I see people do wrong when putting rear brakes together is on the bottom spring... one end goes through the shoe, the other hooks to the adjuster lever that the little cable hooks to.(Not the other shoe).

 

I did one side last night and will do the other side tonight, I will snap some pictures if I can remember to.

I have the NAPA hardware kit and the top front spring was red, the top rear was brown and the bottom one was blue.

 

Here is a diagram showing the spring layout https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...=94657&width=0

make sure the smaller brake shoe padding is facing to the front of truck, bigger brake shoe padding facing the rear of vehicle. '

Most auto parts stores sell the brake tool to install and remove these springs, will make the brake job 100 times easier.

buck