Hey everyone -

I’m kind of stuck with an issue on my rear brakes and I just haven’t dealt with drum brakes in a while.

I suspect that the previous person to to the work put the adjustment screws on the wrong sides.

This is my understanding - the adjuster is mounted outside the rear shoe. When the top is rocked forward the adjuster pivots and the bottom edge of the adjuster contacts the Star wheel forcing the outside edge down a click and opening the adjuster screw one click, adjusting the bottom of the shoes further apart. Am I correct?

The way that they’re set up currently the downward movement of the adjuster closes the adjustment screw and narrows the gap between the shoes. The passenger side adjustment screw screws in when the star wheel is turned clockwise and the driver’s side screws in when turned counter clockwise. This seems incorrect.

Can anyone verify? I’d like to get these back together tonight.

Thanks!

Sounds like your right, when the adjuster pushes down on the star it should widen the gap, forcing the shoe closer to the drum.

Thanks! I already swapped the two sides and it's now correct.

Now I have new shoes and calipers installed with the adjusters pretty much at their minimum. Right now neither the brakes or parking brake actually stop the rear wheels, so they're out of adjustment. I'm having a hard time telling what kind of drag I should be getting with the positraction rear end.

Is it okay to adjust the star wheel until the brakes just catch with the pedal depressed? I don't have a tool here to back the wheel off if it gets too tight.

Thanks!