Rear brake adjustment screw
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:05 pm
Hi,
I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but a little while ago, whilst adjusting my rear brakes half the screw head on the passenger side adjustment screw suddenly snapped off (picture below).
It was tight enough on for the brakes to be effective but too tight for the drum to come off. As I didn't have a puller at the time (now acquired) and as the brakes were working okay I left it until now, so the shoes would have chance to wear down a bit and I could get the drum off. I also bought a pair of long nosed pliers, with which to try and get a hold of the part of the screw head remaining, to see if I could back it off some with them.
They were a good investment, as whilst the rear drum was certainly free-er than before, it was still not enough for it to come off without using my puller and I've heard using them to remove stuck on drums can damage some of the other brake components, which I didn't want to do unless there was no other way. As it was the long nosed pliers did the trick and I was able to back it off enough to remove the drum.
As I was in there now and they had been on the car for the last five years I decided to renew the shoes, I would of got some more mileage out of them but they were getting a bit thin by now and I happened to have a spare set kicking around, so in they went.
So anyway, once they were reassembled and it was time to adjust, using my replacement screw on the passenger side, guess what happened. Yes, the bl**dy thing snapped off.
Fortunately I'd bought a pair, so back apart again, second new one installed, reassembled brakes and................
this one snapped as well!!
At this point, except for having renewed my brake shoes, with no other spare adjustment screws, I was back to where I started!
Fortunately those long nosed pliers came to the rescue again and I was able to back it off one notch and therefore have working brakes on the rear again.
The drivers side screw has given me no trouble so far, so I'd like to think, as I was being careful anyway, that eliminates heavy handedness on my part.................
I shall just have to source another pair and take it all apart again, though when I looked at both the original and the new one they both showed signs of pitting in the metal (air pockets?), so I was wondering if there is a dodgy batch out there or if this is not that uncommon? (Not sure if it shows up that well in the picture?)
Perhaps I should look for a pair of second-hand originals (better metal?)?
Best wishes,
Mike.
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I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but a little while ago, whilst adjusting my rear brakes half the screw head on the passenger side adjustment screw suddenly snapped off (picture below).
It was tight enough on for the brakes to be effective but too tight for the drum to come off. As I didn't have a puller at the time (now acquired) and as the brakes were working okay I left it until now, so the shoes would have chance to wear down a bit and I could get the drum off. I also bought a pair of long nosed pliers, with which to try and get a hold of the part of the screw head remaining, to see if I could back it off some with them.
They were a good investment, as whilst the rear drum was certainly free-er than before, it was still not enough for it to come off without using my puller and I've heard using them to remove stuck on drums can damage some of the other brake components, which I didn't want to do unless there was no other way. As it was the long nosed pliers did the trick and I was able to back it off enough to remove the drum.
As I was in there now and they had been on the car for the last five years I decided to renew the shoes, I would of got some more mileage out of them but they were getting a bit thin by now and I happened to have a spare set kicking around, so in they went.
So anyway, once they were reassembled and it was time to adjust, using my replacement screw on the passenger side, guess what happened. Yes, the bl**dy thing snapped off.
Fortunately I'd bought a pair, so back apart again, second new one installed, reassembled brakes and................
this one snapped as well!!
At this point, except for having renewed my brake shoes, with no other spare adjustment screws, I was back to where I started!
Fortunately those long nosed pliers came to the rescue again and I was able to back it off one notch and therefore have working brakes on the rear again.
The drivers side screw has given me no trouble so far, so I'd like to think, as I was being careful anyway, that eliminates heavy handedness on my part.................
I shall just have to source another pair and take it all apart again, though when I looked at both the original and the new one they both showed signs of pitting in the metal (air pockets?), so I was wondering if there is a dodgy batch out there or if this is not that uncommon? (Not sure if it shows up that well in the picture?)
Perhaps I should look for a pair of second-hand originals (better metal?)?
Best wishes,
Mike.
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Send them back to whoever supplied them... You MUST complain about faulty/useless parts I have NEVER heard of this before. Nothing to do with them snapping - but you do know to release the handbrake cable adjustment when fitting new shoes - and then after setting the adjustment with the (hopefully non snapping) screw - you can then bring the cable adjustment back up to where you like the handle to be.