This is going to be a little off vehicle here but same concept. Got a 64 F100. Weird thing. the adjuster on one of the front brakes keep tightening till it locks the front right brake up and the brake throws you to the right. So we took the drum off and pressed down on the brake pedal and the metal piece that rides on the adjuster moves up and then let off the pedal and the metal piece grabs an upper notch and tightens that adjuster. Any ideas??
There are left-sided and right-sided adjusters. I’m suspicious that you have a wrong-sided adjuster on that wheel.
we did just get a new adjuster. maybe they gave us the wrong one
picked up new adjuster and confirmed the old one was correct. Any other ideas?
That’s what the adjuster is supposed to do, but only as the shoes wear. For some reason it seems that you have too much movement of the brake shoes. Is the equalizer bar in place? Are all the springs seated? Also, the shoes are not identical- there’s a front and rear for each side. Maybe that’s the problem.
My first vehicle was a '64 F100. That was a long time ago, but my recollection is that the adjuster should only attempt to activate when braking in reverse. I can’t recall the exact mechanism, but there’s supposed to be a piece to keep the adjuster from activating under normal (forward) braking.
I know that’s vague, but perhaps its another piece of the puzzle.
As mentioned in a post above, the adjuster is supposed to tighten the shoes to the drums. If you had the wrong side adjuster on there it would loosen. With no drum, the metal tab that moves the adjuster will move attempting to bring the shoes in close proximity to the drum. Once the brake shoes are properly adjusted in close contact with the drum, the shoes won’t travel enough to get to the next tooth on the adjuster meaning it’s in proper adjustment-----until the shoes wear down.
Do you have brake shoes that are meant for a larger diameter drum? The short shoe is on the leading side, or towards the front of the vehicle. Not sure if reversing the shoes that would cause this symptom.
correct adjuster. the adjuster moves really freely though. shoes are in the correct position. heard putting nylon tape on adjuster trick to keep it from moving as easy. shoes are not moving very freely. getting a new brake kit tomorrow and am going to clean up the drum back.
why should it only move in reverse?
If I remember correctly from the F250 driving in reverse and applying the brakes will adjust the drums.
That applies to any vehicle with self adjusting Bendix design brakes. I still think you have the wrong adjuster.
Question, when you are driving the car, do you sit on the left side or the right side?
surprised no one has suggested this yet, how about an image of both front brakes with drums removed?
Self adjusting drum brakes are not unique to Cougars. The geometry of the parts and movement of the shoes makes the adjuster only work when stopping in reverse. When the shoe to drum clearance gets great enough due to wear, the mechanism will rotate the star wheel. If you put it together wrong, you will be in trouble. You can leave out the self adjusting parts, then occasionally check and manually rotate the star wheel through the hole in the backing plate.