Parking Brake Advice

Hello. I am working on my parking brake (this is the D18 drum brake). I plan to have the drum turned, as it seems to make uneven contact, judging from the resistance I can feel when turning it by hand. My questions are these:

How can I tell if the little lever and cam and the little adjustable dials are in good working order? The lever and cam seems a little loose in the backing plate, but I don't know if that is important. The adjustable dials turn freely, but I'm not sure if all of this is as it should be. I have a FSM, but the pictures are so bad I can't see the details. See below for some pictures (note the shoes - the wear pattern is very uneven looking to me; is that normal? Should they be replaced?






Thank you all in advance for your thoughts. coleman

 

Oh, I forgot to mention the reason why I got into this little project. I've been noticing that the brake heats up a lot when driving. Lately, it has also been chattering and generally being a nuisance. It tends to get tighter and tighter until I disassemble it and reinstall the drum. All of this sounds like an adjustment issue, but it seems like it just will not stay properly adjusted with use. Anyone else have this problem?

 

Check the solid post the shoes butt against. They have a tendency to work loose and allow the shoes to move around when driving down the road. I spot weld the post in place to keep this from happening. Not sure if it's "correct" but it sure fixes the problems I've encountered.

 

Wow, that's the cleanest D18 parking break I have seen! Mine are always packed with so much dirt and grease that they hardly work.

 

Mine's only clean because I've had so much trouble with it lately!

Nickmil - I have a dumb question: what do you mean by the "solid post"? The piece with the adjusters on it is firmly in place. The other unit - the one with the lever that moves when the brake is activated - wiggles in the backing plate. There is a post that goes through the plate, but it has no bolt. It appears to be attached with a tiny snap ring or something similar. The post holds the lever unit to the backing plate, I think. Is that the one that you are talking about welding? Perhaps that would explain my issues....

I like the spot weld idea, but I don't have a welding outfit ... any alternative methods to secure it (like putting threads on the stud perhaps - don't think it is long enough to thread a bolt on the other end though...)?

Thanks for the replys.

 

That's the one. Never looked into other methods, I just tack weld 'em in place. I don't see how else you could do and have it solid enough as there isn't enough to thread. Do you have a buddy or a local welding shop that could do it for you quick? It takes about 10 seconds to do. If welding simply isn't an option maybe JB weld but not sure how well that would hold. Another thing I just thought of, are the pads where the shoes ride on the backing plate grooved? If so the shoes could be being held in the wrong position causing them to rub on the drum all the time. If the pads are not smooth they need welded and ground smooth again. I've had to do this to most of these I've rebuilt. Looking at the pic it's hard to tell for sure but the two pads I see look grooved.

 

I know Herm sells the shoes and drum together because he does arc the shoes to match the drum. Getting hard to find anyone that can do it. It's actually illegal in some areas due to health issues with asbestosis and mesothelioma. It will help the park brake grip better but it won't fix the issue he's having now.

Bluecomet, if you can't find someone locally to weld it up for you let me know.

 

mesothelioma

My hat is off to you. I can't pronounce that one, let alone know how to spell it!

 

I teach brakes. I have to know this esoteric stuff

 

Local machinist just smiled when I asked to arc shoes... "Nobody does that anymore."

 

My parking brake post had the same wobbly issue as yours did. I asked the guy at the machine shop to spot weld it when I had my T-case hot tanked. I think he charged me $5 or so to do it. Haven't had a problem since.

 

Thought I should follow up with some photos of what I ended up doing here. I used a small rotary tool to grind the head off the rear of the boss, and it came out the front of the backing plate easily. Then I used a drill press to drill through the rectangular stand-off, and reinstalled it with a small machine screw, nut, and lock washer. I used blue locktight also. All in all it seems like a good repair; the boss is in there solidly. If you have a welder, as mentioned above, that would be a better way to repair it (easier if nothing else). If you don't though, this seems to be an acceptable workaround. Maybe this will help somebody with the same issue someday.





When removing the boss with your rotary tool (Dremil-type with a grinding wheel), be careful not to grind off too much material from the back side. You just want to remove enough to free the boss from the backing plate. There is a small section of the rectangular standoff that necks down to go through the rectangular hole in the backing plate. That piece is important for alignment of the boss. That portion is visible in the photos above surrounding the drill bit. I also used a bench grinder to smooth the front of the boss so that the machine screw would have a flat surface to seat against.