1974 w200.

New drum, shoes, and wheel cylinder.


When everything is first put together, I can click it to adjust it correctly. Drive for a bit, and truck starts pulling left again. Grab a screwdriver, and turn the star wheel, but no more click. I can turn both ways. Pulled it apart, and everything is correct. I even went so far as to squeeze the hook that the lever attaches to the shoe to eliminate side to side play, and even slightly bent in the part that rides on the star. Worked for about 2 miles, and truck pulls left again when braking.

Could the cable be stretched??

What is going on?? This is starting to get frustrating.

Make sure you have the correct adjuster installed for that side and that the mechanism is on the correct side of the shoe IE:
front vs back, be aware the adjusters have R and L threads. if a R adjuster is put on the L side it can back off the adjustment. hope this makes sense and helps

Everything is as pulled off. I usually only do 1 side at a time. When I first got the truck, she stopped straight, no pulling. Only reason I replaced the brakes is because it was getting metal on metal on the drivers side.

I'm now on the hunt for an adjustment repair kit. Local Oreilys only lists for the rear. Are they the same front to rear?

If the spring on the adjuster ratchet lever is not installed correctly, you can have this problem. Don't ask me how I know...

Worth pulling the drum to double check everything.

is the star wheel adjuster turned around (end over end)? as the shape of the teeth is so that the teeth can slide by the tang in one direction but get caught in the other direction (& turned) by the tang & for it to be happening that quick I'd sure think that the tang is catching the teeth turning the threaded star wheel assy "in" the wrong way & compressing (shortening) it when the brakes are applied. No go? I'd take off the drums and have a helper modulate the pedal just enough so you on the outside can see what is going on on each side (as you know just dont let him go far enough so that the pistons come out (just enough to see what the tang is doing). iirc the right hand adjuster goes on the R (pass) side and the left hand threaded adjuster goes on the Dr side but you did say that you did one side at a time (just checking) & it worked good before. holler how it turns out/what it was. PS If you still have the old shoes you might eyeball them if the above done uncover anything (thats all that was changes plus did you say the hardware kit?

On my 70 Challenger had no luck adjusting rear brakes properly. When I pulled drums found that when original owner had removed self adjusters(old drag race car), he had thrown in star wheel adjusters from some old Chevy or some such. And to top it off, Bubba had installed both of them marked with an L for left and one of them was installed backward so that adjuster slot did not line up with star wheel. Apparently not too concerned about braking at end of each run. Old time slips that came with the car indicated that it ran SS/E or F,,,forget right now which it was.

I have since bought but not yet installed self adjuster kits. Also installed discs on the front.

Looks as if when the brakes are applied a few times, the crescent shaped guide under the spring (where the self adjustment cable rides on) moves just a hair. Eventually it moves to such a way that it affects the tension on the cable. This causes the adjustment plate to drop just a hair, making it not engage. If I move the crescent shaped guide back, it works great until the brakes are applied a few times.

Is there supposed to be tension on this crescent shaped guide from the spring that holds it in place, or should it be loose? It is tight in there, but seems as if it were loose, it would be able to reset, and wouldn't cause this issue(?)

12x2.5 or 3" shoes right? Basic Bendix design.

But on those the cable guide is crimped to the shoe, not held in by a spring. Hmm...

That guide shouldn't move, it registers into a hole in the shoe. It can pivot a bit in the hole but shouldn't move up, down, forward or back.

Got a pic of the assembly?

Old pic. I have since switched shoes. But everything is installed exactly like this. I can pull it apart tomorrow or later today after visiting family.

What RR said, the half moon cable guide with the groove for the cable is held tight from the return spring that hooks thru it to the shoe but can pivot in the mounting hole slightly as there is alot of force being applied to it from the cable tension. Is your old cable a bit shorter & if so that might take care of it. if not then I'm trying to think how that (new) cable could be shortened (it can be just never thought of it till now!). Worse case I'd toss the cable and the tang and run a thick horizontle spring across the star to keep it from moving which is just what the auto adjuster to manual adjustment kits do. useally auto adj assys dont work most of the time anyhow (that assy needs to be dead on accurate) & on a manual adj setup you'd only have to check it once in a blue moon which is no big deal. You'd just need a heavy spring of the right length from your stash to hook in across as long as it bears on the teeth or an ACE hardware spring would do it. keep us posted. EDIT If you weld you could tack in a round piece of flat stock with an eccentric hole drilled in it into the top cable eyelet hole to shorten the cable effective length. If Jimmy G (the JB weldmaster) sees this (& chimes in) & says to JB weld it in just consider the source (politely ignore him!). OT if there is a short (primary) shoe (most are like that but couldn't tell from your pic) then the angled return spring up from that shoe gets hooked on the anchor first before the other spring does. By no means a dealbreaker as far as functioning but just proper procedure (& my OCD)

I'm still running the original hardware.

I tried rotating the part that hooks on the top stud up or down to try to shorten the length, but the tension pulls it straight again. I'm thinking it may be stretched just a hair. I'll be ordering a kit tomorrow as soon as the auto parts open up. I found a kit on rock auto, but it won't get here till the first of the year. I'm headed to Utah before that, so it's gotta be done sooner.

what is that rusty piece there (4 o'clock) on the web, I ain't recognizing it. EDIT what about a offsett sleeve over the anchor to increase its OD (it'd be far easier than welding the eyelet) & you could JB weld it to the archor so it'd maintain its offset clocking

11" brakes? Not what I expected but OK.

That's a pretty simple setup to work on. Robert is right bout the order for install on the anchor pin. Cable eyelet, forward return spring, rear return spring.

Is the anchor worn? I've seen them get grooved by the shoes. You'll have to weld and regrind if so.

Also that adjuster should be left hand thread.

now my eyeballs are old and don't see things correctly sometimes, but it looks to me
like the shoes are reversed. the secondary shoe is the long one, and looking again at the pic, it appears to me the [slightly] longer shoe[look at where the lining material stops at the bottom of the shoe near the adjuster] is in the front[primary] position. i base this on my experience that all self adjuster hardware is attached to the secondary[rear] shoe. now is it possible the hole location for the cable pivot/retainer spring is in a slightly different location on the shoe and that is causing this problem ?

if i'm not correct, please correct me so all of us can benefit.

Moparx, Shoes have since been swapped since this pic was taken. Front shoe is on rear and rear is on front.

Moparx, the backers for the shoes are the same on these, and usually the linings are the same length, just one is farther down than the other. The lower lining is the forward shoe.