So I got my new 8 inch rear end in, with my brand new drums. I have discs up front, that I thought were drums, because my braking has always sucked. I got speed bleeders and bled the system. I even attached a clear length of tubing to the bleeders so I could see that there were no bubbles. I then took it for a drive and tried to set the tension on the drums by going in reverse and hitting the brakes. My brakes still aren't close to braking in a safe manner. And my parking brake doesn't do anything, which means that the drums aren't close to the tension they should be.

Any ideas, thoughts, questions????

Thanks

 

The self adjusters are only there to keep the shoes adjusted out not to get the intitial adjustment. Pull the rear back apart and manually adjust the self adjuster until the brake drum will just slide on over the shoes. That is your initial adjustment. Then you should be ok.

 

No matter where your drum brakes are, you should still be able to do the back up trick, it will just take longer. For your parking brake, crawl under the car and adjust the cables. The is an adjuster near the tranny crossmember.

 

are there any other issues with your front brakes?

Most people expect a big performance increase going from stock front drums to stock front discs. The reality is the drums work just about as well (again emphasis on stock v stock). The surface area of drums against stock discs is not that much different. They just dont work for as long.Think of say asteep down hill runriding the brakes or repeated heavy braking. The discs release heat to atmosphere faster so work longer.

cheapest fix for improving the front brakes without increasing size of brakes (which needs bigger wheels to fit) is a slotted rotor and more aggressive street pad.

I dont know exactly what it would cost over there, but its about 25% more than stock rotors and pads here. Cheap upgrade for a big improvement that you will notice.

 

Take a good look at the backing plates for your rear shoes. See if the "feet" on the backing plate is gouged or worn. The "feet" are the four points, two on each shoe, where the shoe contacts and slides on the backing plate. I had to pull my backing plates off and have these points filled with weld, and re-finshed to get a smooth shoe movement. Also, check your wheel cylinders to insure they aren't hanging up, or clogged with old brake fluid. this would prevent the pistons from moving. Last, you should have installed an adjustable proportioning valve for the back brakes immediatly after the master. I believe disc's only take a few pounds of pressure, where drums require more pressure to activate. Last, try Porterfield shoes, they are a little more expensive, but incredible for drums.

 

I adjusted the rear brakes by hand and they are much better. As for the front discs, I think that I'll start with new pads and go from there.

 

He doesn't need an adjustable proportioning valve his car came with disc up front. The factory proportioning valve will work fine.