Rear Drums Only Free in Reverse Direction?

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340inabbody

340inabbody

FABO Gold Member
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Recently rebuilt my rear drum brakes. Everything seemed fine HOWEVER when I tighten up my wheels lug nuts my wheels will not move in the forward direction. They do move in the reverse direction. Again ONLY when the wheels/drum get tightened down.

Something must be binding in compression. Any thoughts what this could be?
 
Things to check:

Back off the adjusters?

Are you sure you have the right shoes? There is a lot of confusion about the 10" rear brakes on A-bodies. They take 10x1-3/4" shoes, NOT 2" shoes. Parts stores are often confused about this.

Did you assemble everything correctly (correct spring on top? leading shoe in the correct position?)? I always get confused looking at the photo in the manual and trying to assemble the opposite side.
 
Dumb question but have you tried just tightening one side or the other only, to determine which side is hanging you up?
 
A56 said:
Dumb question but have you tried just tightening one side or the other only, to determine which side is hanging you up?
Click to expand...
Not a dumb question! It’s actually the one that matters most! I just found that it’s only the passenger side that is binding. I am going to dismantle it and inspect it. It does imply the pads are the issue I believe.
 
To me the giveaway was locking up moving forward (self energizing) but not in reverse.somwthkbgvinhave been doing of late is bringing a thermal temp gun with me and measuring the temp of the drum on both sides if the temp is equal they are both braking the same and if they are too tight they will be excessively hot.

I would drive on a road with no stops and then coast to a stop and measure.
 
Keep in mind too that the rear drum brakes are designed only to brake going forward. This is why there's a front (short) shoe and a long (rear) shoe. So it's perfectly normal if you have the shoes adjusted up that the wheels will be more difficult to turn going forward. More difficult is normal. Locked up is not. lol
 
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