Mopar Muscle Association UK

Yes there is a difference in how far the ratchet is engaged on the star wheel. See how in this photo the teeth are engaging half way along the flat area of the adjuster? Yours has the very tip of this engaging in the teeth as if it is not sitting in the shoe correctly.

Not sure that is the issue but worth looking at.

Aah, I see. Subtle stuff
I did wind back the adjuster to the extent that it is pretty much making minial contact, but I'll take a closer look tonight.
Thanks all for the assistance.

Watching this closely miles as i am still having problems with mine getting hot to the touch....Im close to getting a sledge hammer out to fix it!!!!

If the shoes are new you often have to chamfer the edges to avoid them rubbing excessively whilst running them in........also check that the drums have not gone oval.....

Also had the front brakes binding on the Dogrango; it turned out to be contaminated brake fluid expanding when the brake getting a bit hot resulting in the brakes sticking on, which meant they got hot which meant that..............result: smoke

Pete, I intialy overlenghened the brake push rod when fitting a new servo, that soon made smoke!

Drums are new too. The champfer thing is worth noting. I will look at the wear patterns later.

i'd just back the shoes off

pull the hubs off

give everything a whack with a mallet to make sure its seated right

sort that adjuster lever


adjust so you can get the hubs back on with none or only a little resistance

new hubs have no lip so no probs with this

job done

stamp the peddle like you were quite annoyed with it a few times and go for a drive

stand on the peddle with both feet in tescos car park at 30 mph forward (Brace! Brace! Brace!) and see if you can lock up the back.... don't hit anything

that seats everything just fine

if too much peddle travel or you feel the back doesn't work
about 5 mph backwards and do the two foot brake stomp
that does about 1 click on the auto adjuster.

every time i have followed the book to the letter i ended up with your problem both brakes.

small drag causes chain reaction which causes both drum and shoe expansion at different rates which causes more heat and on and on and on.

get the things worn in with slightly too much travel and all will be well

i haven't needed to chamfer my car is still on the same shoes it had when i got it

Dave

Cheer Dave, always a pleasure

How you getting on now Miles???.....Im sorted now....asked a good mate of mine to have a look last night....fresh set of eyes etc. We compared mine to his Newport and turns out I had the shoes incorrectly orientated (as per Motoramas suggestion). They will fit the wrong way round but were obviously causing probs. We took them off and swapped them as they were, from one side to the other, after swapping the parking brake lever over. We immediately knew it was better as we had to adjust them out quite a lot once installed to take up the adjustment onto the drums. No heat now....

Might be worth just checking the orientation again maybe, could be as simple as that??

Cheers Steve

Well done , mate, wish mine was as simple. If you look at my second pic (previous page) you can see that the shoes are correct; the lead shoe has a longer uncoated section compared to the other.

Meanwhile, i tok the handbrake parts of and the lever that acts on the adjuster. All is correct. The adjuster does fit into the shoes as it should (there is no other way it can fit) and despite what it looks like in the pics, the arm that acts on the star wheel is doing its job. I havent re- road tested yet (new carb to fit first), but if it hasn't improved, i'm a bit stumped

Gotcha Miles.....its a head scratcher eh!!! My shoes had the parking brake lever retaining pin holes on all of the shoes so it made it difficult to be sure they were orientated. My system doesnt use the brass post like yours does so its redundant on mine. It was only when we looked at Kevins Newport that we noticed the post was on the rear shoe on his but the front shoe on mine. My old ones didnt have those posts on so I couldnt use them as a guide....

Its got to be something really simple....

two versions of the adjuster

1) swivels on the post that you bolt onto the shoe 1970?? onwards
2 swivels on a hole in the shoe and has a pressed arm on the adjuster thingy stone aged until 197?

the latter is supposed to be less prone to seizing

both work

you can or course just junk the adjuster...

aussie RTs never had them

designed for circuit racing any OFF that had you rolling backwards across the grass or into the tyre wall would of course adjust the brakes multiple times if you hit the anchors as the wheels made and broke traction in your atempt to save the situation.

get back on track and resume racing and you'd boil your brake fluid due to the exact same problem of brake shoes dragging and heating stuff up

my car has no adjuster levers and all adjustment is done by me via the star wheel and the hole in the backing plate

take the spring for the adjuster lever and stick it in the hole where the pivot would bolt down.

part of it stops the star adjuster turning, unless you want to turn it

Dave

Dave, I think i'm confusing terms. By 'adjuster' i do mean the part that has the star wheel on it. is there another 'adjuster'?

ah right

the star wheel nut arrangemnet does the adjustmnet by making the distance btween the shoes bigger or smaller

that wierd lever thing with the loop of wire on it that rubs the star wheel to adjust the brakes when you press the peddle when going backwards is the bit i'm talking about.

Dave

OK mate, but in principle we mean the same thing in that it acts on the adjuster that pushes on the brake shoes.

Here's a thing for your science head related to the above.
Went for 20 mile thrash on new carb last night. Lots of braking etc..
came back turned car off and decided to check the heat of the offending brake/wheel. Suprised to feel that it seemed less hot than before.
Went indoors for five minutes to open celebratory beer or so, came back and touched the same wheel and now its really hot! What have i not learned yet???