Technical Advice on adjusting rear brakes / handbrake

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Technical Advice on adjusting rear brakes / handbrake

chr1s

Panda Lounge TA 2012
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One of today's jobs was to fit new brake shoes and handbrake cables.

The brake drums (o/s in particular) were a pig to remove, so I have now ground off the lip which was stopping them from sliding off.

Everything is now assembled and working, but there is extra movement in the brake pedal and too much travel on the handbrake. I ran out of time to improve this today.

The brake adjusters appear to be OK. I can see that rotating the ratchet part lengthens the adjuster, but what I don't understand is what pushes the adjuster to turn the ratchet part in everyday use. I wound the threaded part in to almost the minimum length before fitting the shoes and drums.

I assume that the adjuster works very slowly, and that I should have rotated its body, to lengthen it until the drum would only just slide on ?
Am I correct that I just need to remove the drums, lengthen the adjusters by hand so that the drums only just slide on, then adjust the handbrake using the plastic nut ?
 
Just done similar job today- was also a pig getting drums off! Had to change rear wheel cylinder, which was surprisingly easy.

Not sure if my self adjusters are working though- is there a way to check? Handbrake doesn't seem to be doing much to the drum, but the foot brake is working well now (not driven it yet though!) wonder if handbrake cable might be dodgy, not broken but could be seized?

Is there an easy way of testing the self adjusters?
 
With the drums off pump the brake pedal and you should hear the adjusters clicking and extending...

Thanks for that. Checked as you described. Now all working and adjusted.

I am guessing that the adjusters need to be held in compression between the shoes in order to work. This was part of my problem - I had wound them in too far, so they were loose between the brake shoes.
 
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