Ok, so today I was inspecting my drum brakes for the first time. I noticed that on ALL four wheel cylinders when I pressed the brake pedal down and had my friend watch the brake shoes, only the leading brake shoe was pushed out. This happened on all four brakes. Only the leading brake shoe moved, but all the shoes show even wear, so is this just a maverick drum brake thing or do I need to replace the wheel cylinders??? Thanks for any help!
It's not a good idea to operate the brakes with the drum off. You can push the guts out of the wheel cylinder. If I had to guess...I say the return spring pressure is what you're seeing.
Keep in mind that the drum is typically rotating when you apply the brakes. Once the shoe is pressed against the drum the shoe assembly wants to rotate the same direction of the drum. Since the top of the shoe is anchored on a stationary pin this action causes the opposite shoe to apply to the drum for stopping.
Yes, the car is pulling to the left when I brake. I also though it was a good idea to check the condition of the brakes because its my daily driver and I hadn't checked the brakes since I bought the car last February because it had been well maintained. I made sure to apply the pressure slowly so to not dislocate any parts. Everything looks great on the shoes and there isn't a lot of built up gunk anywhere.
I was doing those checks back in the 70s. The best way i found to check drum brakes was to adjust ,drive ,then slam on brakes ,on dirt road to leave marks......, and to visualy see which wheel was locking up- when . The pulling drum is the one thats usually to tight . Because all four drums are hard to adjust eveny ,People here will tell you to just spend the money and swap front brakes to Granada disc brakes. Hope this helps.
