Hi all

I've just replaced the self-adjuster screws on my 93 B250 drums as the old ones where totally siezed. So now I can adjust the brakes so they just drag when I spin the wheels. I've not backed off from this point but I understand from reading other threads that there should be no drag on drum brakes.

My question is really about the foot brake With the van jacked up, if I put the foot brake on 1 click on the ratchet, the wheels are a tiny bit harder to turn by hand. 2 clicks and harder still and 3 clicks I can't really turn by hand.

Remove jack, put van on tiny incline, I have to push the foot brake SO hard to stop the van rolling (4 or 5 clicks) that it would not do anything on a steeper incline.

I've adjusted the foot brake cable but it's as good as it's gunna get.

Could this be mis-worn shoes (i.e engaging enough so I can't turn by hand but no where near enough to stop the weight of the van)?

thanks for any advice

Wilbo.

 

Have you driven the van since replacing the star wheel adjusters?

 

Hi Alloro,

Not really no, round the block. Did some reversing and stopping to try to self-adjust (not sure it did much). Should I expect them 'bed in' - note I've not replaced the shoes which where ok.

thanks

Wilbo

 

When you had the drums off did you spray everything down with brake cleaner. Any brake fluid residue on the drum/ shoes will cause poor braking.

Did you reach the limit on the adjustability of the cable? My pedal use to go to the floor, and the adjustable nut on the cable was frozen and I did not want to break it. I wound up using some S hooks which I then bent over part of the cable to tighten it up. Afterward I could lock up the rear brakes at speed with the parking brake.

I have since gotten a new axle which came with new brakes. I freed up the frozen adjustablilty nut, and removed the s hooks. My parking brake still works great. But the brakes themselves are pretty anemic, a common complaint with these heavy vans.

 

I cleaned everything before I took it all apart but now you mentioned it, I suppose I could have got some copper grease on the shoes when I put everything back together I'll give them a spray with brake cleaner and see if that helps!

I didn't reach the limit and I can tighten the nut until it only take one 'click' on the foot brake to engage the brakes. But you can't get much power down with your foot when it's like this. It seems 3-4 clicks works best.

 

That's good enough. I was just asking because a quick drive will settle everything into place.

 

I had a bit of a hard time with my parking brake too, and failed my MOT on 'parking brake no reserve travel' the first (and second) time.
It took me a long time and a lot of frustration but I eventually managed to get the brake adjusted satisfactorily. My first mistake was thinking that the adjustment nut on the cable was to adjust the tension - it's actually to adjust the balance between left and right brake, so you need to make sure you've got equal tension on both side using this equaliser.
As far as I could make out, there is no actual tension adjustment, so therefore worn pads, or a stretched cable could potentially make correct adjustment impossible.

I found it easier with a helper, so you can make slight adjustments to the equaliser nut and brake adjustment star-wheels, get them to press the parking brake and foot brake a few times to 'bed it in', re-adjust etc etc. When correctly adjusted you can /just/ hear a slight rubbing of the shoes on the drums, but nothing enough to cause any braking effect whatsoever.

Edit: forgot to say, once you've made your adjustments and think its correct, you need to do a bit of reverse driving and using your brakes several times, so the star-wheel self-adjusters do their job and take up any extra slack. You'll hear them clicking as they adjust, and this last step further improves the feel of the parking brake as it gets the correct tension.

Cheers,
Ben

 

thanks for the info Ben,

The bracket on my adjuster is connected to the two cables going to the levers inside the drums, I don't see how adjusting the nut could balance these two cable - i.e. doesn't it pull each cable by the same amount when you tighten it? I was trying to see if the balance was out but couldn't see any easy way to adjust the brake cables independently. Can you explain this a bit more?!

yeah, I think I need wifey to help out

thanks

Wilbo.

 

It could be that yours is different to mine. I tried to take a picture, but it's not that clear unfortunately:



The front of the van is at the bottom of the picture, so that cable comes from the parking brake lever and essentially is directly connected to the right brake drum via the bracket you can see on the end of the cable. The left brake drum is then connected via a cable on the end of the threaded rod - by adjusting the nut you alter the position of the threaded rod, and thus the tension on the left brake drum in relation to the right.
Is yours different to this?

Ben

 

The cable adjust on mine definately affects both equally. In fact one of the cables going to driver side has had some addtional mini cable clamps to pull it more.

It's a bit annoying as if I adjust the brakes so they only just touch (wheels spin freely and stop after about 3 turns) then the parking brake doesn't engage enough to stop the van moving and also the van's all round braking is rubbish.

I think I've got uneven wear on the shoes, any tips to correct other than a new set?

Wilbo