No E-Brake after new drums/shoes

[mendo]

I replaced the rear drums, shoes, and brake hardware on my 2001 SC2. I *think* i feel a bit more stopping action from the rear now while driving, but have virtually no emergency brake. if i pull the handle all the way up, there is barely any brake applied.

during the brake job, i screwed the adjuster screw all the way in, thinking that the adjuster system would find the right spot once back in service.

i also replaced one of the wheel cylinders, as i found it to be leaking. i did bleed that brake line.

do i need to adjust that screw outward?

I don't want to adjust the e-brake cable yet, right?

any advice is much appreciated. thank you in advance.

[fdryer]

Unless you adjusted the star adjusters to have the brake shoes lightly drag on the drums, all you did was mechanically prevent the parking brake from working. Go back and adjust the star adjusters until the drums drag. If there's a lip that prevents the drum from going back on, grind off the lip. When drums wear down, only the part that comes into direct contact with the brake shoes wears down. This leaves the outermost part of every drum that has the original inside diameter - the lip that becomes prominent when drums are worn down and removal becomes next to impossible. The lip is the original inside diameter that now has to be ground off to allow drum reuse and removal.

Grind, file, whatever to remove this lip and then the drum can be used and the star adjuster adjusted properly.

[mendo]

thanks, fdyer.

the drums are new, so there's no lip yet.

i have wrestled with the idea of "slight drag." how is a newbie supposed to know when there's slight drag? i would say that there IS slight drag - i gave the drum a hearty spin and it would go about 1.5 times. i could hear a bit of drag the whole time.

if there's no harm in cranking the adjuster screw out a bit, i will do that. is there a guideline on how many revolutions you should be able to spin the wheel or drum when everything's adjusted properly?

i should be able to adjust the screw, engage the e-brake and NOT be able to turn the drum, right?

thanks again.

[fdryer]

The light drag felt with only the drum on is sort of a target adjustment because its just a general guideline when everything's new. As soon as you put the 50lb wheels on there's no more drag because you increased the stationary weight. As soon as you try spinning the wheel the spin will go several revolutions before stopping. Since everything's new, the brakes aren't bedded in and the drums haven't taken a set, a marriage that takes a few good hard stops to wear in the new brake shoes. Once that period is reached, the rear wheels will now spin freely. All the preadjustment for slight drag is gone! The drag adjustment is to allow the minimum shoe travel it takes when applying the brake pedal while also allowing the minimum Parking brake travel when pulling it up. When all is said and done, the last adjustment is to adjust the parking brake. You may have to go back and readjust the star adjusters again if you really want no slop in the brake system. Its all mechanical with drum brakes; get it right and your brakes work better. Unfortunately, Saturn rear drum brakes fail to automatically readjust itself with these star adjusters. So you have to periodically go back and manually turn the star adjusters to take out the slop.

And when adjusted correctly, pulling the parking brake is supposed to lock the rear brakes, period. The parking brake has an adjustment nut to adjust for cable stretch, near the lever.

[mendo]

great info, fdryer.

i will adjust the star and then adjust the cable adjuster for the e-brake if that lever still feels sloppy?

i'll try to let you know how it goes after i have the ambition to put that thing back up on jack stands.

thanks again!

[bluesl2]

If the parking brake worked correctly before you changed the shoes/drums, it should all be in the shoe adjustment. I believe the service manual states if you pull up 3 clicks on the lever the back wheels should lock or be very hard to turn.

[Threeshot223]

In my experience, factoring in a bare drum, no tire mounted to add momentum, I set the rear drums to have about as much drag as the front discs, meaning that the drum will rotate maybe half a rotation. With the tire mounted the momentum will take this to 1.5- 2 rotations, which is about right.

I did a drum job just yesterday, and adjusted like I wrote above, my parking brake locks on a slope at 3 clicks. I don't think I can even pull it up past five or six without breaking something.