Greetings all,

Recently I purchased a 2002 dakota sport 4.7 4x4.
I've been replacing everything that's worn to get the truck into better shape.
First time replacing rear drum brakes. Replaced shoes, cylinders, and all hardware. With both rear wheels off the ground on a 4x4 and the vehicle in park/2WD, the wheels both lock and do not spin. In neutral, the wheel spins but takes alot of force while moving the drive shaft. In most videos, I see people able to free spin the wheel and then adjust the self adjusting system until it's got about a turn of drag on the wheel. With the self adjuster all the way closed and the shoes not touch the pads, the wheel is still extremely hard to spin. I've tried disconnecting the parking brake with no change which makes sense if the shoe isnt even touching the drum. Is there something I am not looking at correctly?

 

Put the transfercase in neutral instead of 2WD. What you are feeling is the drag through the transfercase going into the transmission.

Unless you have both trans and TC in neutral already, in which case I got nothin.

 

*facepalm*
that totally makes sense. On my drive selection panel the neutral light is smashed in or something. I tried sticking a pin in there to select neutral but I dont feel a button etc.
that's what I read online anyways on getting the TC into neutral.

 

After getting the TC into neutral I can freely rotate the wheel for adjustments. Hope this post helps someone else who is new to trucks like me.