Okay I completely rebuilt the brakes on my 73 Duster, front disc, rear drum. I was using the one man Phoenix bleeder yesterday, after some trial and error i got most of that figured out, got a mildly tight brake, but heard something snap in the rear.
Pulled the wheels off one of the adjusting star wheels just fell out and the spring above it came loose. Now when I rebuilt this a couple months ago, I was basing the location of everything off those grainy old pictures in the service manuals. I think my adjustments are off as well.
the star wheel on drivers side (one that fell out) doesn't seem to make any contact with the adjuster finger..I looked closely at it but cannot figure out how to make it click into it like it should.
I'll mess with it here in a bit, but mind looking at these pics and see if anything looks off?


this side is the passenger side, wasn't giving me any issues..yet, but I'm concerned about it since i did other side nearly the same, star wheel makes contact no problem.

side with the problem.

For one thing, I believe the adjuster cable is not connected to adjuster lever correctly. The end of the green spring itself is supposed to hook into lever, no?

Can not see in the picture but a bet that where the cable loop is at at the anchor that it is not pulled down all the way and the cable acts like it is too short. Pull down on it and it will seat down on anchore and cable will then will be long enough.

I second that. The bend of the spring should be hooked on the adjuster, not the frame around the spring. And I think the spring behind the adjuster is hooked in the wrong hole in the shoe on the adjuster side. Here is a picture of mine before I rebuilt the rear end. Suggestion, digital photos are a very useful tool when tearing something down and benching it for a while.

I agree on the pre-tear down pix, unfortunetly when i got this rear, the brakes were a complete mess, and it wasn't a good reference for this. most of the springs were broken and gone. thanks for the suggestions, I'll take a look at it again.

I believe the lower spring is on backwards also...
I also think you have the primary and secondary shoes mixed up.

after reading what you guys said and looking at it I'll agree that green spring was wrong, makes since, otherwise it served no purpose. the other spring i changed around, fits better behind that green spring anyways so i think you're right there too. the adjuster seems to work fine..thanks guys!

pass side.

Well, it DOES look like the front shoes are on one side and the rear shoes are on the other, don't it....

So you're thinking the shoes sides are swapped? wow..lol

I was thinking when I put these together I compared the shoes and they were all the same, holes and padding.. is it the padding that gives it away?

Shoe with the least lining goes to the front...
I just got done relining brakes here at work, do them all the time.

Okay, guess I'll have to switch them out. thanks for the help!

If the actual pads are all the same overall length, that's new on me. I know they sometimes glue them on in a little different locations, but there should be shorter pads facing front of car on each side.

I had a few sets that the lining was the same length.I think I still have a new 11 inch set in the Garage.Rocky

Brakes are like a mullet. Short in front long in back.

took another look, the linings are the same length. one side staggers towards the top where the other staggers towards the bottom. making it look like they are "off"

Like I was thinking, when i put them together in the winter the linings were the same length. Good to know in the future though if I get the small/big thing.

They shouldn't be the same. I think you should get another set . Car won't stop right with out correct shoes installed correctly.