Rear drum conundrum.

[HamishW96]

Originally Posted by Classic Boy

Does your self adjuster turn the right way? That is the one shown in the pic should be lengthening when the adjusting blade pulls up. both rear brakes use adjusters the are opposite threaded, on the side shown LH thread the opposite side RH thread. The system is simple and been used a long time and usually trouble free my 1970 Dodge Charger has an almost identical mechanism.
The spreader bar is only part of the hand brake system it doesn't play a part in the self adjuster.

Hey classic Boy I changed the adjusters too whilst doing the brake job. I made sure they are 'R' and 'L' on the right side. The free floating pin side of the wheel where you can pull out has the orientation stamped on the inner where the pin inserts on it.

[HamishW96]

Originally Posted by Jonny Jeep

One thing that is sometimes missed is the seating of the cable guide. It should be sat flat against the steel of the shoe if the lip is sat in the hole correctly, and isn't always obvious. If it isn't sat correctly the adjuster could potentially unwind.

The lip on the guide should also be checked for fractures. I've seen it before when cleaning the brakes. If the lip fractures and breaks, the guide can slip and the cable slacken. The guide needs to be removed to check for fractures around the lip, for flush fit you can try and slip a feeler gauge or piece of paper behind it.

Hey Jonny, its all new, I made sure the cables are in the right spot (on the little guide and not behind it) where I held the guide to the brake shoe with a vice grip when putting the spring on it.

So this week I went and did about 10-15 reverse stops. It seems to have cured it! The hand brake tension still changes but the brakes work well every time now. Ah well, it is nearly 26 years old, I will live with it. The rear brakes actually work now as they had been out of adjustment for some time, ie I had no adjusters in it ahahah.

[awg]

they work very poorly indeed without the adjusters

note the service manual states a number of hard reverse stops is suppossed to activate them

[Classic Boy]

To make rear drums effective from first stop you should manually adjust them to drag heavily when first assembled before driving. Then stamp the pedal a few times to centralise the parts and then check the manual adjustment is all the way and dragging the shoes slightly on the drums before taking the car off the jack for the first time.