Brake squealing / left pull issue?

[jmbass98]

Brand new drums, shoes, cylinders all around. Drums are not out of round. Short shoe is forward.

Hard left pull on braking. I adjusted the brakes. Was braking straight, no squeal, everything good. Day later, back to a hard left pull and squeal from ONLY the left brake. Could the self-adjusters be bad? What else could be going on? Ty.

 

[khryslerkid]

Need to pull drums and inspect. See if the right side pulls off easily. It could be the adjuster has backed off. There's a left and a right adjuster. R or L is stamped in the end of the threaded piece.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Did the hoses get replaced? Any wear to the pads on the backing plates? The self adjusters only do final adjustment, very slowly & only when your backing up..

 

[Jerry Hall]

I'm going with a collapsed hose on the right side. As stated the self adjusters are side specific. Also hard stops in reverse get the most action from the adjusters.

 

[MoparLeo]

Sounds like a hard spot on one drum. What was the brand/manufacturer of the parts ? Are the drums still swagged to the hubs ? After the drums were installed on the hubs did you re-check them for concentricity ? Take the drums back off and inspect. Take pictures and post them here.
Remember that there were a lot of reasons that all the car manufacturers went away from drums and now use disc brakes. No adjustment issues with disc brakes and no brake fading.

 

[Jerry Hall]

I have never has a problem with drum brakes in normal driving. The only fading I have experienced is with 3 or more consecutive 1/4 mile passes with no cool down. Hauling 3500 lbs down from 120+ in 5-6 minutes is even hard on disk brakes. They also get hot and ineffective.

 

[dadsbee]

Did you do as I said the last time that you asked and swapped hub assemblies side to side? Some **** makes no sense... but it works!

 

[jmbass98]

Ah, I did not... Can you explain that a bit more? I apologize. Or if you have a reference on how to do this? I am inexperienced with brakes, as you can see.

 

[dadsbee]

Pull the entire hub/drum assembly, bearings and all, swap them side to side remembering to set your bearing nut torque correctly and then re-adjust your brake shoes for the slightest of drag and give it another go. Mine pulled right in a heart beat, swapping sides it panic stops straight as an arrow now. Tested it today again when some ahole short stopped at a light. Who teaches these idiots to leave 3 car lengths?

 

[jmbass98]

If I do not have a torque wrench, am I still able to do this?

 

[dadsbee]

Yes... while rotating the assembly... snug the spindle nut until the hub doesn't want to roll quite as freely and then back it of ever so slightly so that the retainer will allow the cotter pin to go through.

 

[Jerry Hall]

If I do not have a torque wrench, am I still able to do this?

I have never in my life used a torque wrench to adjust bearings on hubs. @dadsbee has the process exactly right.

 

[dadsbee]

I tried the torque wrench BS for the first time in my life Jerry when I assembled Therapy! On the hub swap I went back to reality, as the torquing process left wheel rock every time!

 

[jmbass98]

Here are pictures... about to attempt swapping assemblies...

 

[dadsbee]

STOPPPPPPPPPP !!!! Generally drums are swagged in place on front hub assemblies. All you need to do is try swapping the drums, reset the brake shoes and try again!

 

[jmbass98]

Could I call you to better understand?

 

[dadsbee]

Drum and hub are usually swagged together, why we had you swapping complete assemblies. In your case all you need to do is swap the drums side to side and see if your issue goes away. Shoes need to be readjusted both sides to a slight drag before test drive to see if your pulling issue goes away.

 

[jmbass98]

Must have popped the seal off... best way to reseat it? Do I have to remove everything? How bad did I **** up?

 

[MoparLeo]

Good reason to have someone with some experience to help you. Just an aside, I hope you have a jackstand under there somewhere. If the swage on the studs is not removed and/or the lug holes in the drums are not large enough to fit over the studs protrusion the drum will not seat flat against the hub. Get yourself a quality torque wrench and a service manual. "Calibrated wrists" come with experience...Wheel lugs should be torqued to fsm specs. Do you still have the original drums ? If so compare the other side.

 

[dadsbee]

So who pushed the brake pedal with the drums off??? At least you know there's no fluid flow issue to the right side.

ALSO, now that Leo posted that FSM illustration... your "brake" shop swapped the forward upper spring for the adjuster lever spring on both sides! Large diameter spring belongs on the auto adjuster lever, small diameter/longer spring belongs on the top of the forward shoe! Could very well be the entire problem. Two different spring pressures, so your front shoe wasn't being forced out and only the rear shoe was due to the lighter spring..