Before i do something stupid

My 95 Silverado has no way to adjust the rear drums without taking the drums off. At least not that i have been able to discover. And ive looked.

Theres no way to drill the backing plate behind the adjuster due to the axle flange.

My thought was to drill a hole through the hub face of the drum at the star adjuster big enough to get a flatblade through. So, we'll call it 3/8. Then put a body plug in it to keep debris out between adjustments. 

Why is this a bad idea????

Because if they're assembled correctly they should auto adjust, yes?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

In theory. However, ive never had the auto adjust function actually work on anything with drums.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes. 

I thought there was rubber plugs in the backing plate to get at the adjusters on those, but if there's not gm has been making drum brakes for a LONG time, they know what they're doing. I would leave it alone.

In reply to gearheadmb :

There are rubber plugs. However, they are nowhere near the adjuster. 

Maybe its just a matter of me going through things methodically, cleani g, lubricating and adjusting, and then let the gm technology work. However, like i said, ive never had auto adjusters work. But i normally deal with mopar drums....

Are the backing plates installed correctly?  Perhaps they were assembled incorrectly and this is why the plugs don't line up with the adjusters?

Yes. Verified by pictures on the internet and other trucks in the junkyard.  A Google search shows many other guys complaining about having to pull the drums off to adjust. 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

I'd be shocked if the drums on my truck are materially different than the ones on mine from 12 years later. It's not GM's style to reengineer something that is nearly adequate. My point being that my truck now has 201,000 miles on the rear and I ain't adjusted E36 M3. 

A clean, properly assembled drum brake should work very well and not need manual adjustment.

So I just did some reading and it looks like you have the JB5 brakes and I have the JB6 brakes and indeed the whole world thinks  your adjusters are worse than mine. Having said that, maybe you're asking too much out of these brakes? The rear drum brakes on a truck don't do a hell of a lot. 

 Back In The "Old Day's" GM said Back Up and Depress the Brake pedal with a striking motion to adjust the brake.

ebonyandivory said:

A clean, properly DESIGNED drum brake should work very well and not need manual adjustment.

Fixed that for you.  GM hasn't built a properly functioning drum brake since 1987.

Streetwiseguy said:

ebonyandivory said:

A clean, properly DESIGNED drum brake should work very well and not need manual adjustment.

Fixed that for you.  GM hasn't built a properly functioning drum brake since 1987.

Everyone I know must just be lucky I guess.

I second the clean/lube everything, back down a steep hill at 25MPH, and slam on the brakes (just shy of lockup).  Do this 3-4 times and they'll be adjusted.

3-4 times will move the adjuster about 3-4 teeth which is about 1/16 turn. And these things can be turns out of adjustment. 

Why don't you take the drum off, and adjust them until the drum just slips on but still turns without resistance??  You should hear the shoes just barely touching the drum  

if there is a lip worn onto the edge of the drum, take a grinder and knock it down first. 

If I'm reading things correctly, the parking brake pulls directly on the rear shoes. Because of this the JB5 guys say that you can tell that the brakes need adjusting when the parking brake takes more push to set. So now I'm thinking that if you have your parking brake too tight (whatever that is) then the self adjusters, which aren't very good, are fighting against the parking brake. Maybe You need to back the parking brake way off, get the self adjusters working, and then adjust the parking brake?

dj06482 said:

I second the clean/lube everything, back down a steep hill at 25MPH, and slam on the brakes (just shy of lockup).  Do this 3-4 times and they'll be adjusted.

Where the hell would someone find a steep hill to do 25mph backwards?? 

You don't need that much speed if the self adjusters are working 5-10 mph and stomp the pedal. You just have to repeat this quite a bit, as each stop will only give you one or two clicks of the adjuster. A harder, faster stop doesn't get you more clicks or travel or anything like that. And they do actually work if they aren't seized up, but often they are seized because so few people slam on the brakes in reverse to get them to adjust. And, if you get too far out of adjustment, then the self adjusters seem to stop working.

Convert to disk?

In reply to yupididit :

where I Live they are on the Other Side Of all The Hills that Go UP,  But I live in the Blue Ridge Mtns.

All those pesky lawyers stopped gm from telling people that the proper way to adjust brakes was to go 25 mph backwards down a mountain road and slam on the brakes. 

My 2001 GMC rear drums also take a heavy foot to auto adjust, so they get manually adjusted at tire rotations. 

Also one of the adjuster hold plugs was not stamped all the way through.  No amount of hammering with a chisel would remove them so they got drilled out.

Taking all the auto adjust discussion out of the equation, is it safe to drill a hole through the Hub face of the drum to access the adjuster?

I can't quite envision how small that drum is or how large the axle flange is to be in the way of the adjuster.  Adjusters are normally at the bottom between the shoes well away from the axle flange, I would put the hole in the backing plate.

Putting a hole in the drum wouldn't throw the balance off my much being in the center and as long as the edges are round shouldn't cause a crack in the drum.  

Some quick googling shows that some have the adjuster just below the wheel cylinder.  Yeah that's a dumb place to put it.

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