Evening brake gurus,


Ok so here's the situation:

the other day i took off my rear wheel (wanted to see if some rims I got fit) They didn't but while I was in there I took off the drum just to look at the pads (shoes?). They seemed okay, I stuck the drum back on, mounted the tire and the car seemed to be stuck with the E-Brake on. Last night I was messing around with the same wheel trying to figure out why the brake seem stuck on, took off the drum, pressed the brake pedal, bled the brakes until the drum would go back on replaced the drum and wheel then I used the adjuster screw (the little geared wheel only accessible from the bottom of the drum on the back behind the rubber plug) to move the brakes out as far as they could go to tighten them down. pushed in the brake pedal started the car and this time it moved a lot easier but it still feels like theres something dragging......ok so here's my questions:

and let me say the shop manual is in the mail, I have been waiting all week =D so cut me a little slack. Also I don't drive this car its not in a condition that I feel safe using it (doing disk conversion soon) so no worries im not gonna go careening into a school bus or anything.

1: did i do something wrong in the method I used above? if so what/point me in the right direction?

2: do i need to bleed all the brakes once I do one?

3: I have read its possible to get air in the brake lines, I was careful and used a hose to bleed the brakes but I'm not a dodge cert tech, is there a way to tell if there's air in there?

4: I had thought maybe I got a kink in my e-Brake cable and it was stuck on, but by bleeding the back brake it seemed to fix it so now im not so sure about the e-brake

5: I'm hesitant to change the pads/shoes because I'm replacing the rear with a big bolt pattern 5x4.5 and I'm doing disks on the front. That being said should I have changed the pads or if they look okay just leave them?

Any help would be great, I am pretty good with instructions and I want to take the time to do this right and the last thing I want to do is be responsible for hurting someone...


Thanks and sorry for the long winded post!

Karl

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Karl

when you just spin the wheel does it drag or when you drive it..it drags. sounds like you have drums all the way around. When I had those I did have to bleed then in a specific order to get the air out.
What are you working on? what year

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Its so nice out side, I think I'll go lay under my car..

Sorry, I have a 1968 Dodge Dart. It does indeed have drums all the way around...

When I spin the wheel by hand it seemed fine, I shifted it into reverse to back it up a little and I could feel it dragging still

If the brakes have to be bled in a certain order I am assuming it would be in the shop manual? Also should I adjust the other back brake the way that I did the 1st one (Sorry I'm new at this so I'm not 100% sure how drums work. I think they are self correcting and adjust to the proper spacing on their own ...?

Thanks =D

Karl

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Karl

Drum brake frictional elements are called shoes. Air in the lines will not cause dragging brakes. You don't necessarily have to bleed all the brakes just because you bleed one of them, but if you bleed all of them the correct sequence is right rear, left rear, right front, left front. Dragging, sticking, or grabbing brakes, if they are not caused by improper adjustment, are usually caused by a faulty wheel cylinder and/or contaminated shoes—if the wheel cylinder is faulty the shoes get brake fluid on them, or if the axle grease seal fails the shoes get grease on them. This can't be cleaned off effectively; the shoes have to be replaced. Of course, the faulty component(s) also have to be replaced.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Okay thanks for the info, It would seem then that my brakes are improperly adjusted. I didn't see any brake fluid or grease inside the drum after I removed it

Thanks!

Karl

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Karl

The best way to find if and what is sticking is to jack the car up and spin each wheel by hand. If the brakes are dragging that bad you can't get the drum off very easily and you won't be able to spin it by hand.

Pull back the rubber boot on the wheel cylinder and see if there is any corrosion, crusty stuff, goop or fluid leaking out. There should be no fluid in the rubber boot but they don’t always leak out into the drum if you catch them soon enough. They can also be sticky and not leak at all. Sometimes you have to take them apart to find one or both pistons are frozen or corroded, or the wheel cylinder is full of crud.

Unless you tightened the adjustment until the wheel wouldn’t spin, or adjusted them without a wheel mounted, I wouldn’t think adjustment is the problem.


Danny

Also, you cannot always discern fluid- or grease-contaminated brake linings by sight. Recommend you get not just the service manual but all three books described in this thread as quickly as you can.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.