Brake Drum Wont go on

Strange entry for a gun blog but I came across something in fixing my Nissan Frontier doing the rear brakes when the brake drums would not go back on that could be helpful in doing drum brakes.

Reasons why the brake drum will not go on from your assembly.

1) The parking brake must be fully let off. After pulling the release lever make sure it is pushed in completely if it is a handle type. If it is a foot lever type pull the release and hold it in release without letting go and reach down and grab the peddle and make sure it fully retracted.

2) As the rear brakes ware it is possible that the cable adjustment was tightened to give the emergency brake a solid feel. On a foot lever and dash board pull handle type this is generally under the vehicle. Two wrenches are needed to loosen the cable adjuster and unscrew it until the cables are sloppy. On a between the seat pull lever type remove the cover and unscrew the adjuster cable a good bit. After the brake drums are on readjust the emergency brake.

3) Sometimes the brake cylinder expands a bit and after the brakes are assembled, they must be pushed in a little. Put a hand on each side of the brake shoes and push in firmly. Also make sure that the brake shoes are aligned and one is not higher while the other is lower. This is fixed by taping them a little up or down with a rubber  hammer and trying the brake drum  

4) The brake self-adjuster shaft is a shaft with a screw and a notch at each end of the shaft. As the brakes ware the self-adjuster turns and is longer to make up for the ware of the shoes so it should be cleaned before reassembly and lightly greased and screwed all the way together before putting on the brakes. If you forgot to do this you can push or pull back the lever that does the adjusting and use a screw driver and screw it all the way in. The threads are backwards on one side of the car so you will have to turn it the other way to do the same thing. These parts cannot be swapped from one side of the car to the other.

5) You could have put the parts together wrong check carefully. I am old school so I only do one side at a time If something does not look right or work right I go to the other side of the car and look to see if my parts were assembled right. If you have a cell phone take good pictures before you start taking things apart.

6) Brake drum barely fits on both sides. First the lip needs to be taken off where the old metal is left from normal ware. This would be best to have the brake drums turned. Though not for everyone I am good with my hands and have removed the lip with a hand grinder on drums and rotors. But a hand grinder is not a machine tool and you can make a real mess of things. Wiggle the drum and line up the holes with the lug-nut studs but do not force it all the way on as it could be the dickens to try to get off.  With both sides on about half way pump the brakes to see if things line up better and the drum should go on by hand do not bang it on. If you have already banged it on before you read this. Call your local auto parts store and see if they have a brake drum puller as a loaner tool.    

      

Reasons why the drum will not go back on that is not your fault!

1) Wrong part compare the old parts with what is in the box before you start. They should look alike in every detail except the brake lining is thicker.

2) Wrong part in the right box. This can happen in the factory and can make you crazy. A new worker can in some cases not assemble parts right. Solution take the part back and get a refund and go to a different auto parts store as the shelf could be full of the same part with the same mistake. ( I had that happen once with “3” different fuel pumps.)

4) Borderline factory parts change in manufacture of your vehicle where the factory changed the part on the same year and make; or there are more than one choice of parts for the same year of car or truck.

I hope this helped.


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