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Need Correct Drum BrakeSpring Kit - 2000 XJ

I measured the two lengths I got from a 9" kit from the top of the ring eyelet to the attachment point for the adjuster bracket to be 9.25".





 
And you said the star wheel on the auto adjuster was the wrong size as well?

I think I will be going to Napa and picking it all up today! It should be warming up a bit this weekend so I don't see why I wouldn't be able to take pictures and get measurements for it.
 
Miller, your illustration shows that the adjuster cable pawl is not engaging the adjuster correctly. It should be lying on the star wheel when at rest. When this system is correct, when you need to back off the adjuster manually, for example to remove a ridged drum, you should have to poke a tool in to push that pawl off the star wheel to disengage its ratcheting function.

If the cable is the right length, I still suggest that you re-investigate the seating of that pivot. Remove the spring from the hole through it, and make sure that the pivot is seated correctly in the shoe. You cannot assume that a half dozen previous brake techs did not miss the problem too. It's impossible to see once the spring is installed.

Mind you, this design of brake is like something Rube Goldberg rejected as too far fetched. That it ever works at all is a surprise. But it does if you keep at it.
 
From my experience, the NAPA kit that worked did not have a different length cable compared to the kits that had the gap. They all measured the same as what I posted above.

However, the difference IMHO was the cable pivot was beefier and then kept the cable in the correct place. Or potentially the other problem could be an incorrectly stamped adjuster. Let us know how the NAPA kit works out.
 
Matthew Currie said:
Miller, your illustration shows that the adjuster cable pawl is not engaging the adjuster correctly. It should be lying on the star wheel when at rest. When this system is correct, when you need to back off the adjuster manually, for example to remove a ridged drum, you should have to poke a tool in to push that pawl off the star wheel to disengage its ratcheting function.

If the cable is the right length, I still suggest that you re-investigate the seating of that pivot. Remove the spring from the hole through it, and make sure that the pivot is seated correctly in the shoe. You cannot assume that a half dozen previous brake techs did not miss the problem too. It's impossible to see once the spring is installed.

Mind you, this design of brake is like something Rube Goldberg rejected as too far fetched. That it ever works at all is a surprise. But it does if you keep at it.
Click to expand...

That's what I was trying to convey above. That think looks really bent but it could be the perspective. The groove that it's supposed to sit in looks dirty and shallow too. May be why it's not seated correctly too.
 
I still haven't had a chance to pull the rear brakes apart on mine to take a look yet. Will be taking place this weekend, though!

I would like to say, that a friend of mine with a 2000 XJ was having the same EXACT problem ... The parts came from Advance auto.

He had a YJ with almost new rear brakes. We ended up moving the hardware from the YJ to the XJ and it worked fine.
 
I just replaced my remaining left rear Carlson brake drum adjuster hardware kit with the kit from NAPA. The NAPA adjuster cable pivot bracket is far superior, it is beefier and positions the cable guide slightly higher which keeps the adjuster lever in constant tension to the star wheel.

All other parts of the kit looked very much the same. The cables are the same length, adjuster levers are identical, star wheels were slightly different; the NAPA spurs were of a different style.

NAPA drum brake hardware FTW. Hope it works out for you also Miller.
 
Interesting thread... let us know if you're able to get some pics of your setup.

Reading thru this made me happy yet again that I swapped out my '01 XJ's rear drums for discs a couple years back!! I hate working on drum brakes...
 
I'm doing the conversion to disc tonight so if anyone wants some fairly new hardware that worked, I'll mail it for $10 to cover shipping, little more if you want the shoes too. Has less than 5000 miles on it.
 
Interesting. Just tried last night to fix a friend's rear drums on his 2000 XJ with the C8.25 axle. He has the EXACT same problem with the adjuster not resting on the star wheel. It looks identical to the pictures posted. I know his dad redid the rear brakes when he first got it, so not sure if the adjusting hardware is original. He bought a rear brake adjuster repair kit from Advance and we had the same problem. The new hardware was still loose and not touching the star wheel. Pulled the drums off my 2000 XJ with a D35 and noticed that everything is tight like it is supposed to be. My rear brakes work perfect. I thought maybe his brake shoes were cheap aftermarkets that weren't lining up correctly.

Should we try the Napa brake hardware? Anyone have a part number for hardware they used that worked correctly?
 
Well I picked up the brake adjuster kit from NAPA, and I'm sad to report that it is the same exact stuff as the Advance kit. Says "Made in China" on the box and all of the parts in the kit are identical to the ones in the Advance kit.

I'm thinking many of the chain stores purchase their parts from the same supplier causing this issue.

Seems my options are:

1. Try Autozone, Carquest, and Dealer adjuster cables to compare
2. Find junkyard cables
3. Pull the cables off my XJ which are known good ones and shorten the aftermarket ones to the size mine are for my friend's XJ.

At this point I think 1 and 2 might be the best option since junkyards suck around here. They pull everything for you and usually refuse to pull small parts like springs. Plus there is a chance the XJ it gets pulled from might not have stock parts.

I'll update this thread if I find anything.
 
As I posted earlier, it's not the adjuster cable that makes the difference.

It's the adjuster cable pivot bracket. The part that rests behind the drum brake spring. The inferior kits aren't made properly.

J3201947.jpg
 
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