Lumina Rear Drums Brakes Not Self Adjusting

[1979lee]

I think my rear brakes arnt self adjusting.


thevy got over 100k on them and ive adjusted the before and they need it again. i last adjusted them earlyer this year, i drive the car about 6k a year (no i dont drive that much)
see pic of the brakes shoes i took today.

any ideas? or is this just in my head.
i do know it stops real nice after i adjust the rear's, and gradually it stops less and less nice.

thanks guys


rear brk.jpg

[Gunboat]

could you possibly have the star adjuster in backwards?

[Schurkey]

What activates the self-adjuster? Park brake? Do you ever use the park brake?

[RobertISaar]

from when i pulled mine apart a few months ago, the parking brake only actuates one side of one shoe? anyways, what i had to do to keep mine nice and tight feeling was manually adjust them to the point of having trouble getting the drum on, at that point both the normal and parking brake felt great.

after about 1000 miles or so, it was starting to feel a bit sloppy and the parking brake wasn't as effective.

so instead of manually adjusting everything again, i got the idea of setting the parking brake as much as possible, then slowly depress the brake pedal all the way to the floor.... did that about 20 times or so, the first ~5 times, i could actually hear the star wheel spin around and the little bar that stops it from rotating backwards smack the wheel.

now i'm in the habit of using the parking brake almost every time i stop somewhere, been a good ~2000 miles since i had to go through the whole "pump brake to floor multiple times" thing, still have fairly tight feeling brakes.

fixed an issue my dad couldn't figure out for almost 5 years. he thought there was just air that wouldn't come out of the rear lines for that long.

[1979lee]

i use the park brake ever time i stop, it works perfectly fine, as for the star wheel being in backwards no clue of the, ive had the rears adjusted and the brake shop i trust never said a thing about that, i know the owner well.just seems odd that ive got over 100k on the rears and they've got a ton on meat left. i drove dads truck yesterday and it tops a heck of a lot better (99 GMC sierra 1500 v6) i get into the lumina and they brakes suck compaired, i DO NOT have abs in this car

i will try the set park brake and step on the brake thing later today

thanks all

[Schurkey]

from when i pulled mine apart a few months ago, the parking brake only actuates one side of one shoe?

The force applying the park brake works on both shoes. The mechanism is just pushing the shoes apart--when one shoe is pushed into the drum, the force pushes the OTHER shoe into the drum.

i'm in the habit of using the parking brake almost every time i stop somewhere,

Yup, that's what keeps the brakes adjusted. Don't use the park brake...brakes never adjust.

[RobertISaar]

i use the park brake ever time i stop, it works perfectly fine, as for the star wheel being in backwards no clue of the, ive had the rears adjusted and the brake shop i trust never said a thing about that, i know the owner well.just seems odd that ive got over 100k on the rears and they've got a ton on meat left. i drove dads truck yesterday and it tops a heck of a lot better (99 GMC sierra 1500 v6) i get into the lumina and they brakes suck compaired, i DO NOT have abs in this car

i will try the set park brake and step on the brake thing later today

thanks all

AFAIK, the shoes on the 95MC have only ever been replaced once..... at ~150K miles. replaced the drums at the same time. the rear brakes will still function even if not self-adjusting, but it will take a lot more pedal travel before the shoes contact the drum. even with unadjusted shoes, i was still able to lock the rear tires at times.

The force applying the park brake works on both shoes. The mechanism is just pushing the shoes apart--when one shoe is pushed into the drum, the force pushes the OTHER shoe into the drum.

like i said, it's been a few months since i looked at it, so i wasn't 100% on that.