i replaced the drum brakes on my 1995 dakota 4x4. started with the left side and took everything apart and put it back together with new hardware, drum and shoes. drum went on fine and everything. did the right side and replaced the same things, drum, shoes, and hardware. once everything was done the drum will not fit on the right side. i have the adjuster all the way in. could it be the arking brake cable since it splits off into two?? or would it more likely be the wheel cyliner that needs to be replaced. not sure but i just want the brake job to be done. it is starting to frusturate me. lol. any help appreciated. thanks

 

I would say something is misaligned.

 

Correct...something is out of place, or it would fit back under the drum. I've done brakes now for 25+ years and still encounter this when I do drums on an unfamiliar vehicle. Thank you god for disc brakes!!!!

 

so there is no way that it could be wheel cylinder not allowing both sides to come in. i have triple checked all the hardware and everything is on the same way as the other side and the other side fits.

 

Could well be the wheel cylinder, too. Did you rebuild the wheel cylinders? Is there any play/give in the shoes? Take the star wheel and arm off and see if there is any give...you should be able to compress the shoes a little...if not, you may have a stuck wheel cylinder.

 

i did not rebuild the wheel cylinders but when you push on one side of the wheel cylinder it just pushes the other side out. they should both compress in right??

 

Correct, might try taking a little brake fluid out of the master cylinder...not down to empty but enough that it won't burp out the top if you get the shoes to compress inward. Wheel cylinders aren't that hard to do tho, just another joy of dealing with drum brakes.

 

When you push the top of the shoes together, you should be able to get the shoes to touch the center pin where the retaining springs mount to. If you cannot do that, I would take it apart again and see about rebuilding or replacing the wheel cylinder.

Did the parking brake work before? It is possible the cable on that side if frozen in the on position. On the 95's you have several cables to check.

One from the pedal down through the body to the chassis. That hooks up to the intermediate cable. That's the one that Y's off to the two sides. It connects to the two rear cables. One on either side and they connect to the cable that ultimately attaches to the parking brake lever on the rear most shoe.

Hope that helps.

 

It's also real easy to get the arm that the parking brake cable connects to in there wrong...did that last time on my 93 dakota when I was replacing the parking brake cables. It looked good but of course didn't work right...der!

 

when i push the tops of the shoes together they do not go towards the anchor pin at the top in the middle. that is what is making me blieve that the wheel cylinder is bad. i am going to take off the wheel cylinder and put a new one on and see if it works.