Rear Drum Self Adjuster

[gwanyerselsun 1]

Hi there,

 

I've been rebuilding the rear brakes of my 1600 gti and am at the re assembly stage. I put the brake shoes back on this afternoon and found that the self adjuster doesn't seem to be in contact with the triangular shaped lever.

 

I am still to bleed the new cylinder and adjust the handbrake so everything is sitting in loose.

 

Will the triangular shaped lever re take it's original position once the brakes are bled and handbrake adjusted?

 

Any info / suggestions would be appreciated.

 

All the best,

 

MacI

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

If its not sitting on the adjuster now then I doubt it will after bleeding. Try re sitting the lever to see if it sits better on the adjuster. If not I've always bent the lever abit so it makes contact.

[Oberon 0]

Having adjusted mine twice I can say that they are designed really crap and don't adjust themselveshardly at all, maybe when they were new.

 

The adjuster wheel thing the lever is supposed to turn can be turned by a flat screw driver, I think it needs to go downwards

 

you want it so that the drum is tight to go back on, but the drum can be turned freely by hand.

 

( REMEMBER which direction to adjust it ).

 

You should feel a big difference on the handbrake after doing both sides.

 

 

If that don't do it

 

- leave the drums on.

 

- Get a small torch(not lighter), turn the drum till one of the wheel nut holes lines up with the adjuster wheel ( think its around 1 or 2 oclock )

- (may help to mark its position somehow before)

 

- remembering that there is the lever thing in the way too

 

- get your screw driver in there and make final adjustments. (this is why you remembered the direction to turn it)

 

- You want (i may be corrected on this) the brake shoe to be making the tiniest possible amount of contact with drum (by hearing when turned by hand)

- If they are too tight you can always adjust back a bit by putting your driver on the wheel thing and giving it a light tap back.

 

Fiddly but remarkably effective.

 

I was doing this the other day and thought Id share it. I thought it was cool, but I am sad.

[davev 1]

as Oberon says adjust the brake shoes manually first. the one thing id add to it is make sure that the hand brake is slackened off.

 

you'd be surprised how good a properly adjusted set of shoes are.

 

also you might find that when adjusting, the spring pressure moves the self adjuster onto the cog.