Rear Drums heating up REALLY bad, but everything is new.....Help

Guys,

I hate posting about something like brakes, cause I'm really good at doing brakes. Anyway, he's what's going on. In my buddy's 90, the drivers side rear drum is heating up so bad it left the inspection station guy with 2 VERY burnt fingers. Here is what is new:

Drums, pads, adjuster screw, adjuster cable, ALL springs, wheel cylinders...um EVERYTHING.

Anyway, the drums went on OK, with the adjuster screw only showing a couple threads (normal I felt as everything was new) the resistance was minimal when free spinning the wheel, although they did take some work to get to move, OK again I thought, as they were all new. We drove around, did the normal break-in, came back, jacked it up, and now both wheels were free spinning just fine. I thought we were golden.

Today my buddy goes to get a sticker. This is when the drum was found to be SUPER hot, again, burning the inspection guy.

WTF have I overlooked?

Thanks!

Todd

Sounds to me like the e-brake is stuck on for that side. Had the same problem w/ the wifes Grand. Some moron had adjusted the e-brake to tight and the slightest movement on the handle caused it to catch. After I readjusted it was fine. I would start there.



Ray

See I don't think that it is the E-brake, theirs nothing that's too tight on the e-brake.

Dunno. Funny thing is, they gave us a sticker, it was pretty funny.

I've seen something like that happen not too long ago and it looks like it was a pad shoe IIRC. COntact xjohnnyc for more info (he just went through that about 3 weeks ago)

NHxj4x4 said:

WTF have I overlooked?

Click to expand...

Rusty parking brake cable.

Eagle said:

Rusty parking brake cable.

Click to expand...

Probably.

The standard adjustment for the parking brake cable is actually pretty loose. The by the book, will leave you with about five clicks on the handle (till it catches hard) any less than three and something may drag, especially when the shoes heat up, they do expand a bit.
Also if the shoes don´t fit the drums well, they can rock a bit. If they heat and scrub enough for the crown of the shoe (somewhere near the middle) to catch on the drums, it can cause the shoes to catch, rock, heat, expand in a cycle that just gets worse.
You can look at the shoes and see if the crown is hitting and also see if the the crown rocks the shoes. The wear marks will be from the center out to one end mostly.
Which side are the long shoes on? The long shoes (to the best of my recollection/somebody correct me if I´m bassed acwords), the long shoes go to the rear and have the adjuster cables on them.
Weak return springs (top) springs. With new (not arched) shoes, the bottom springs are often too long to put any (very little) tension on the adjsuting screw (star wheel assembly).
Most anything that causes the shoes to rub (much) can generate enough heat to make them catch and heat up.
Any kind of moisture contamination of the brake fuid, will eventually cause steam and expand in the wheel cylinder.
Air in the system can also mess with wheel cylinder retraction.
Any brake fluid contamination on the shoes, will make them grab and heat.
I´ve gotten in the habit of doing a fingure test periodically, on the drums with new shoes, have had trouble in the past with them dragging and heating a bit during break in.