It should be noted that many times on high milage vehicles without occaisional cleaning and lubing the star wheel, it will rust up over time and cease to auto adjust in reverse brake. I believe that Ford service says to clean & adjust rear brakes at the 30K or 60K service.

In other words, the star wheel should be lubed occaisonally just like the caliper slides.

 

Careful, fireball....don't get CW started on the auto-adjust thing again! We prefer self-adjust (there's a HUGE difference) he he! I use anti-sieze on the threads of the adjuster after I clean it and haven't had one sieze up for as long as I can remember.

 

lol true - self adjust. Don't need to drum up 2 more pages.

 

Careful, sheets....don't blunder off into the ether. Keep in mind you couldn't actually adjust the brakes with the drum off. They're designed to never need manual adjustment after initial set up.

That "access hole" is essential for another purpose. You need access to work automatic adjusters from outside b/c "removing the drums" would often be impossible w/o it. Normal drum wear produces a ridge & you must be able to back off the adjusters, so brake springs retract the shoes, allowing you to pull worn drums off. Otherwise the drum would be locked in place.

I've had FORD trucks since the mid 80's & rarely had an issue w/automatic brake adjusters. The "access hole" is also important to do the preliminary adjustment for new shoes. Beyond those uses I've never had to manually adjust FORD drum brakes in over half a million miles. If an automatic adjuster failed, I'd fix it. FORD used the same design for decades b/c of it's extraordinary reliability.

 

Don't worry about me, CW. I blunder off into places all the time! I don't think I've ever adjusted drum brakes on the rear of my vehicles after initial adjustment. However, I find it necessary to tweak the front drums on a couple of my older rides from time to time so I can stop in a relatively straight line. Nice to see that you're calling them automatic adjusters like the rest of us!
BTW, I don't think you need to drive forward for the self/ auto adjuster mechanism to adjust the shoes out, driving forward re-sets the mechanism for the next time you back up and sharply apply the brakes. In other words, you can't continually back up/ hit the brakes and expect the shoes to move closer to the drum each time....the ratchet has to reset between each cycle.
Good points about needing to back off the brakes to get the drum off, and also about not being able to PROPERLY adjust the brakes with the drum off.

 

Hi Ultra.

sheets, Reread this thread. Note: I tried to make a distinction between truely "self-adjusting" disc brakes & the "automatic adjusters" added to these drum brakes. Sorry to see that you're calling them "self/ auto adjuster".

Sorry, my recollection is that applying the brakes in reverse essentially ***** the automatic adjusters. If you sit there stopped, foot on brake, after braking in R, the adjusting lever will be held high, ready to pull down against the star wheel on the adjuster. When you brake backing up the roles of primary & secondary brake shoes reverse. This makes the shoes to shift counterclockwise, within the gap created by wear, that motion produces the cocking action. The opposite shoe is now against the anchor pin. The shoes are held in place by various springs, retainers & hydraulic pistons, which offer significant resistance. When these parts get old, gummy, dirty & rusty the resistance may be considerable, hence FORD's instruction "sharply applying the brakes when driven in reverse".

While everything is new & well lubed you might be right & merely releasing the pedal after braking in R may allow springs to overcome resistance & bring the adjuster lever down, adjusting the brakes. However in the real world back to '97 F150, after brakes age, things no longer glide as they did & even driving forward may not be enough to kick the shoes back into their forward position against anchor pin. In this common situation the 1st time you hit the brakes going forward rotates the shoes & allowing the adjusting lever to pull down on the star wheel & adjust the brake when foot goes off the pedal.

I sincerely hope nobody found this volunteered opinion arrogant & condescending or in need of editing.

 

I've decided to refer to them as self/auto adjusters because I can't tell which you're more comfortable with. You've called them both in this thread.

 

Its funny that you could be so easily influenced, yet sad your reading comprehension failed you. I've ONLY referred to disc brakes as "self-adjusting" & made the distinction between them & the "automatic adjusters" installed on drum brakes. If you don't understand that disc brakes are w/o any type of adjuster, hydraulic piston to friction material backing-hence "self-adjusting" so be it.

You are simply WRONG to say I "called them (drum brake automatic adjusters) both in this thread". Gremlins rewriting things not withstanding.

Can you see why commonly "you need to drive forward"? I've been surprized when some have revealed they don't know the function of the anchor pin or roles of primary & secondary shoes.

Hope your "comfortable" w/making up your own terminology.

 

Hey now. Lets keep the bickering down =] We are all here to learn a little and keep ourselves entertained on midnight shifts by reading a little. haha. ANYWAY. I didnt get much time to these.. "Things." WHATEVER you want to call them. I have brakes as of right now. There just not what they use to be. Ill tweak with those when I get time off to do so and can get back up to our little work place. If that does not work ill start looking into the bigger issues..

 

Hopefully you are able to distinguish which comments were posted for the sole purpose "to learn".

From those posted primarily to "keep ourselves entertained".

 

Yes, I do believe I can manage to do that. Thanks for your words of wisdom everyone.