Brakes&Drums

Dyn'R

I just put new brake pads on my '88 4cly mustang..the new Drums are veerryyy tight going on,requiring mallet persuasion,now there on BUT are they supposed to be this frigg'n tight? I mean i cannot even turn them by hand..or do they require a break in period
P.S. the adjuster is on the least setting!

Rehabber

Do NOT drive your car this way. Take the brakes back apart and find out what is keeping the shoes pushed against the drum, maybe back off the parking brake adjustment?

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Dyn'R

Well i spent a good solid hour making sure everything went back as it did coming out. Now i'm really tempted to just shorten out the adjuster screw as it would go it fine that way.
P.S i even phoned the parts place to reconfirm that these drums were indeed the right ones & turns out they are.

Think grinding down the adjusters would be a wise route about 1/2inch?

slickshift

If you are sure you've adjusted your shoes (drum brakes use "shoes" rather than pads) all the way in, the drums should be snug but not require grinding

Do not modify your adjusters

I's suggest either they are not adjusted all the way, the parking brake it still on/stuck, or you have the wrong shoes and/or drums

Don't go by the store that you bought them from's word
Bring one to another store and ask to see what their's looks like
Or compare them to the original
The differences will be very subtle

It's not unusual for this vintage Mustang (transition years mid-80s) to have different brake parts (year before/year after GT/LX), or the store to have the wrong listing
I've run into both

Make sure your parking brake is OK (off and loose) first though

47_47

As the others said, if your star adjusters are turned all the way in, you either have a park brake misadjusted/cables stuck or the wrong shoes/drums. The spring on the park cable spring between the backing plate and the arm should not be compressed. If it is either your park brake adjustment is too tight or you have sticking cables. The only other thing that I've seen that would cause this are both side wheel cylinder pistons stuck and not allowing the top of the shoes to retrurn to their normal position.
Make sure you replace the return springs and hold down hardware, clean and lube the backing plates, pivot point and adjusters and remove all of the cosmoline (sp?) from the drums. Another thing to check is that you put the secondary shoe (longer lining) towards the rear of the car.

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What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it.

Dyn'R

You guys r-e-a-l-l-y Do RocK!!
'G-o-o-d Karma', please find it's way to your residences!

slickshift

Ah yes...I've run into this also

slickshift

Well thank you