drum brake help

[HAVABEER]

hi everyone, this is a non-toyota and my first time i've ever owned a car with drum brakes so still trying to work it all out. its a 83 suzuki carry with drum brakes... FRONT and rear.

i took the van in for rego and the guy said he failed me because i didnt pass the brake test and said that they'll need adjusting and brought back to him. i know this is true as every now and then the brakes will pull to one side, kinda skidding out and pulling back in under hard and heavy braking.

so tonight i thought i'd try and adjust the shoes which is a nightmare in its self as each wheel has two wheel cylinders and two adjusting stars. so after trying to tap the stars this way and that to see if i could get any difference, (as i'm not to sure how to tell if they're seated properly or not) out of them i put it back together and took it for a spin, still grabbing fairly hard to passenger side. so i assuming that means the drivers side isn't working to well.

so took drivers side off again and i pumped the brakes a few times, not knowing you are not meant to do this. heard a bit of a pop (dust seals coming off) and noticed that both cylinders are pretty much all the way out with one spewing out fluid

so i backed off the hydraulic lines and pulled the pistons out wiped them down and had a look at the seals, seamed ok, wiped out cylinders and put them back in and connected up hydraulic lines again. i don't have any brake fluid on me so i can't bleed the system which i know i will have to do to get all the air out.

my couple of questions are:

> am i able to just put the pistons back in the cylinders and re use them, a couple of internet readings and some people are saying they'll be stuffed, i can't see why they would be though

> whats the best way to adjust drum brake shoes?

cheers

[convertableTA23]

The pistons may or may not be stuffed, only way to be sure is to try. However, the seal usually gets damaged when it is pushed out like that. In my truck experience, the best way to adjust them is to jack the wheel off the ground and adjust the front adjuster untill a little drag is felt, then adjust the rear adjuster untill a litle more drag is felt. Do this all the way around the vehicleand you should be apples. Just be carefull for tight spots in the drum (drum out of round) as these can give you a false sense. Drum brakes actually work really well and are usually cheaper to maintain, they just don't cool quite as well as disks so are more prone to fade (just don't drive it like a race car ). Enjoy the little suzuki....

[lexsmaz]

Pretty much as TA23 said ..

Next time dont back off the brake lines as there is no need to, just clean & refit pistons as you have done with a light smear of rubber grease or brake fluid on the piston & seal & bleed well as you now have a lot of air in the cylinders etc ...

check that the adjusters are not seized as it can happen, i like to adjust one adjuster up till the wheel wont rotate as you then know the shoes are seated & then back off a couple of clicks so the wheel has a slight drag on it & do the same to the other adjuster & spin the wheel again to make sure it feels ok & repeat for the other side trying to keep both wheels with the same amount of light drag, before you lower the car try pressing the brakes a couple of times & see that the wheel rotates the same after releasing the pedal & also apply light pressure to the Brake pedal & see that both wheels seem to increase in drag the same amount, not normally necessary to do unless you are trying to track down a problem .. obviously you will need a helping hand with the last check ..

[George]

HAVABEER drum brakes usually tend to pull the car to one side, and it's not unusual if they behave differently as you depress pedal stronger. So for example car may stop ok when braking to the floor and tend to turn left when you brake slightly.

while these're quite normal features for drum brakes, there're still a few things to check:
1 treat drums and brake pads with abrasive paper first, then wipe with white spirit, make sure no cylinder is leaking
2 drain old fluid, bleed brakes, check brakes in few days and make sure there's no air (if it's there see where it comes from)
3 make sure there're no 'stuck' pistons

it's usually so much pain to do that I would consider going all four disk brakes (I think it has better money to result rate)

p/s there's a topic with discussion what was the last toyota with a carby. It would be interesting to see what was the last toyota to come with drums. We had new cars with carbies and 4 drums as late as 1996 :-)

[HAVABEER]

i did a bit of a test and swapped over the drums and the pulling seems to have switched sides as well, and both drums are definitely out of round with one being alot worse.

i might try and lathe them up at work on friday failing that drop them off to a brakes place on monday guy quoted $30 for both drums

[convertableTA23]

just drop them off at the brake place. If you machine them and stuff them up you might run out of material to re-machine and then you are up for new drums, 30 is on the cheaper side for machining too.....

[HAVABEER]

machined them up at work best i could. made little to no difference anyway, kept violently pulling towards the passenger side.


i did how ever pull the drivers side wheel cylinders off, and have a good look at them, but of rust/corrosion/build looking stuff both in the cylinders and on the pistons so i gave them a good emorying and put it all back together, did another adjustment, bled the system again and seems to have fixed it stopping pretty much straight now. just hope its enough for a pink slip brake test.

i've ordered some new shoes for the front anyway as i think mine are quite contaminated and i know the rears are definitely starting to get on a bit.