david.clement@verizon.net wrote:
: One of the shoe springs fits through the hole in the plate and shoe and
: connects to the anchor pin, it's the spring that keeps the guide from falling
: out. This method of attachement is pretty standard for Mopar, GM and Ford drum
: brake systems.
Thanks very much to everyone who replied with tips and advice!
When I read Dave's answer above I had to do a mental forehead
slap - DoH! That's what I get for trying to follow the service
manual procedure in order. ;-) One of the return springs does
indeed hold the guide plate in place, and its much easier to
install that spring before hooking up the cable, as Dave suggested.
The truck is back on the road now, but for some reason the
brake & ABS lights are lit. I'm not sure what that's about.
Doesn't seem to be stopping incredibly well either. After a
bunch of back/forth brake stomps the pedal pressure built back
up and I could lock up the fronts in reverse, but its still
not quite right.
One problem with the brake install was that I couldn't get
the self adjusters quite right. The lever that engages the
star wheel wants to sit beside the wheel instead of underneath
it, almost like it isn't being pulled
sideways and down hard enough by the spring that holds it in place.
(It just slips against the wheel instead of grabbing it and
pulling it up. It would appear that the lever is supposed to
pull up on the star wheel, but ironically, because its sitting
beside the wheel, it slips on the way up and actually grabs a
bit on the way back down and turns the adjuster in the wrong
direction. I did check the L and R stamps on the adjusters
to make sure they are on the correct sides.) :-P Initially,
that lever wouldn't even go down far enough to get below the
wheel - it was hitting on the brake shoe. Comparing the new shoes
to the old, they were identical except the new ones were a tad
longer and this was what was preventing the lever from going down
all the way. I trimmed off the excess so now the lever can
physically get down that low, but it just doesn't want to.
I dunno, maybe I will try to use a screwdriver or something to
spin the adjusters until the shoes drag pretty good on the drums
and see if that helps at all. (When I installed the brakes, the
self-aduster was pretty close to its shortest limit.) These
are Albany brake pads from AZ with the lifetime warranty, maybe
I should have checked out Mopar too.
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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