Ive noticed the car kinda wanting to stop itself at low speeds and seemed to have something to do with the parking brake. Anyway I went and replaced the rear pads, bled the brakes and adjusted the parking brake. The left rear is still dragging pretty bad with the parking brake adjusted all of the way out. Is there something else I can try here? The Left parking brake line/spring in the drum seemed tighter than the right side. And damn I hate drum brakes....

Thanks,
Erik

 

sounds like a bad wheel cylinder.

 

my wheel cylinder went bad on mine a long time ago. probably seized out. i hate changing drums so it gave me an excuse to do the rear disc conversion. 250.00 for everything from a salvage yard and it stops alot better.96 excoupe.

 

Well I took apart the cylinder and cleaned it all out and put it back together and it seemed to compress fine before i bled it. But even to get the drum back on it was tough. I guess ill have to go in again. Ive noticed a 2-3 mpg drop over the past couple months.

 

I have the same car as you and my drums do the same thing just not as severe as your problem. I'm probably just going to do a disk conversion instead of fix the crappy drums.

 

have u adjusted the shoes with the star wheel at all? NOT the parking brake. u can adjust the parking brake but it's not going to do anything for when u hit the brakes while driving. theres a shoe adjuster and theres a parking brake adjuster. make sure their both set properly.

 

Didnt try to adjust with the star adjuster. I should be able to back the pads off with that? Is that separate from the auto adjuster in the drum? Because I Backed that back to just a thread.

 

dito.....
also when you replaced the pads.... did you feel the calipers? if they arent perfectly smooth they can have drag spots..... they could also be warped alittle.... best to have them TURNED and all smoothed out.
and if you didnt grease that star threads and end cap you should go ahead and pull them off again and grease them.....

but if they still drag then you should just replace the wheel cylinder..... just cause it looks good doesnt mean it is good.... also before poping the new one on you might want to bleed the fluid thru a bit just to make sure no dirt in the lines just gets pushed into the new cylinders. just a good idea to do that with new parts.

 

u'll be able to pull the shoes inwards with the star wheel adjuster. since u said ur having trouble getting the drum on there, im positive that the shoes just arnt set properly.

-pull the drum off
-spin the star wheel so the shoes move inward little by little
-slide the drum back on, it shouldnt be hard to get on at all
-spin the drum. u'll know the shoes are atleast close toproperly set(not gena be perfect but thats ok) when theres is slight drag. u dont want it to spin too freely or be very difficult to spin. just slight drag spinning it by hand.
-just keep adjusting the shoes untill the drum has a little drag on it when spun.

u'll probably also notice some brake pedal difference after adjusting them.

[IMG]local://upfiles/4748/7DE124874E2E45EA9A69A8FDD674640E.jpg[/IMG]

 

I agree with posts above suggesting that you have a problem with the self-adjusting mechanism. I had a problem nearly identical to yours with my 97' Civic. The reason was that the Adjuster Bolt was unable to rotate freely in Clevis A due to accumulation of brake gunk (see picture). Under these conditions, the brake pads were unable to self-adjust. Thorough cleaning of the Adjuster Bolt and Clevis A fixed the problem.

[IMG]local://upfiles/25538/41167D96A0E94AFB808C2E878B4209AD.jpg[/IMG]