One problem with the book is that on one side, the direction you turn the star is one way, and on the other side, it's the other direction--at least I think it's that way. One way to tell is that if it flaps away from the tang that is supposed work in conjunction with the adjuster, it's tightening, and if it flaps into the tang, it's loosening.

Often acting as the sfb that I am, I used bonded shoes rather than rivited. Come on folks, cut me a brake! I just wanted to get it done, it was my second stop in the parts hunt, so I took the bonded shoes. ALWAYS USE RIVITED SHOES.

THe problem I had with the back shoes was that even with the adjuster backed all the way closed, I had trouble getting the drums on. Well it's not that I had trouble getting the drums on. Yeah, I got'em on. The thing is that I really had to hoss them on, rather than the drums simply slipping on.

It wasn't a case of a ridge on the drums. All 4 drums are drums are virgin with only a handfull of miles on them. The brake failure was caused by letting the car sit. I'm assuming that the manafacturere figures that the drums are going to be enlarged by multiple turnings, so they made the shoes extra thick. And they are the correct shoes because the back shoes will fit a whole bunch of GM cars, almost like a GM distrbutor cap.

They were a little tighter than I normally use for the initial setting, but they were probally set good enough for the professional brakeman, not wanting to do multiple adjustments as the shoes seat.

I yanked them a while ago and the adjustmet is good enough for now. I also noticed that the shoes have barely seated, but I have only driven the car about 300 miles since I did the brakes.

If you have any questions about getting the shoes adjusted, I'll walk you though the process. Obviously, the drums have ridges. Have them turned or replace them if they don't mike out when they go to the shop.