Soft brake pedal & Rear drum

[ghonhee]

Hello. I am working on a 1991 Dodge W150 S (4×4) with the 318 5.2L V8 engine. Recently I have replaced the front wheel bearings, rotors, calipers, pads and front hoses. In the rear, I replaced the drums and shoes on both sides using new hardware. The left side’s parking brake cable had snapped so I also replaced that as well. The right side’s wheel cylinder had its bleeder valve broken off so I replaced that. I cleaned off the threads on the adjusting wheels before putting them back. Afterwards, I bled the system: bench bleeding the (old) master cylinder, the rear abs, and the individual wheels.

Topic

[college man]

I would recheck your work. check the star adjuster is in not out. also the the shoes are seated into the
wheel cylinder. C8-)

[EricTheCarGuy]

If you can’t adjust the brakes properly you’ll never get a good pedal out of them. Pedal feel has EVERYTHING to do with the rear brake adjustment on vehicles with drum brakes. See what you can do to find the cause of the problem with the rear shoes as they may not be mounted correctly OR if you didn’t machine the drums the new shoes may not be seating correctly. I would start with that and then worry about the work you did on the front wheels if you still have an issue. I show how to ‘seat’ the rear shoes for a better adjustment in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCpCkun2qxA

[ghonhee]

Thank you for the replies.

I am going to take another look at the drums this weekend.
Is machining the drums nessesary even if they’re new?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Quoted From ghonhee:Is machining the drums nessesary even if they’re new?

99.999999999% of the time, no. If they’re cheap-o junk drums from China that you found on ebay for $15, then yeah, maybe.

[ghonhee]

Alright. I ordered them new from rockauto. Like I said, for some reason I am suspicious of the parking brake cable that attaches to the adjusting lever and the spring that holds the lever back.

[cliorider]

keep us posted ….

good luck

[EricTheCarGuy]

Quoted From zakmartin:

99.999999999% of the time, no. If they’re cheap-o junk drums from China that you found on ebay for $15, then yeah, maybe.

+1

[ghonhee]

Alright. I took the drum apart and reassembled it to no avail. I am pretty stumped. I know that the shoes are not seating right because the tops of the shoes are rubbing quite a bit on the drum… Could it be that the parking brake cable is not releasing all the way? Thanks

[EricTheCarGuy]

Have you attempted the brake adjustment?

[Author]

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