Hey everyone... I need some help. I would take my car to a shop, but I'm currently out of money, so I took the job onto myself.

Last week my left rear brake shoe fell off inside the drum and locked up my wheel - that sucked.

However, I managed to get the drum off and the old brakes of course. I installed new brake shoes, but when I seat the drum snugly back on, I hear metal on metal scraping when the wheel turns and it's LOUD and obnoxious...I'll also throw in that I haven't done a brake job in 10 years probably, so I might as well say that I've never done brakes. I took photos before I started, so I would get everything back where it was supposed to go, and.... as far as I can tell - everything is where it needs to be...but I could be wrong.

I did have some trouble with the adjuster...I adjusted the star all the way down, but there still seems to be a little slack in the adjuster, even though I can't get it to move in anymore..if that makes sense

What could be causing this?

 

I don't know if I should add that everything except the shoes is old...all I could afford were the cheap shoes....I'm using all of the old hardware.

 

One of the springs could be in the wrong spot, either the spring itself or the attachment point. IMO, hardware should be replaced every pad/shoe change. It's under $10 for all new hardware.

 

I guess I need to jack up the other side, pull the wheel and drum off and eyeball those springs for comparison....I thought I got them back where they all went, but I'll also bet money there's one in the wrong spot...I'm just like that ><

 

I say that because the last time I did the rear drums, I couldn't get one side back together for the life of me after 30 minutes. I went and jacked the other side up and took the wheel and tire back off and the drum and noticed I had one spring in the wrong way. I dislike drum brakes, lol.

 

wouldn't hurt to have the drum turned since it locked up, I used to never have drums turned but it made a world of difference afterwards on these tiny weak units our neons have. Wouldn't hurt to bleed the 4 brakes if you have a helper to push & hold on the pedal for you