Rear Brake Adjusters

[Graham L]

Hi

Tried adjusting Hank's rear brakes the other week and no matter how hard I tried I could not get the rear brake adjusters to move (and yes I looked at the manual and was trying to move them the right way)

Adjusted the fronts no problem, question is, is there a way to free these off without taking the drums off, the thought of trying to get the big nut off terrifies me!!

 

[angus]

You could try very careful application of plusgas or something, using the red straw (careful for obvious reasons!) to try and get some liquid inbetween the brass and the steel...
Try tapping the end of the screwdriver with a hammer and 'pushing' the cog round...?

I avoided removing that nut for years - when we eventually did take it off it took a 9ft bit of scaffolding, and the front of the van just came up! But give it a go - huge satisfaction from eventually replacing the decade old brake pads, and using nice new shiny brass adjusters, changing the cylinder etc! In fact many people now just cut the old nut off (careful, again!) and fit a new one.

Having said that, you will need to back the brake pads off to take the drum off the axle, so may be back to square one!!

 

[billybradshaw]

I've just had this same problem. No amount of effort was going to get the buggers to turn until I brought out the blow torch and fried the sods :twisted: . I heated them up and then gave 'em squirt of plus gas, leave 'em for a little while and then give 'em another blast. This did the trick for me. Just be mindful of the fire risk as plus gas can and does ignite quite readily. :shock:

I should just point out that replacing most of the brake parts was my intention so I wasn't bothered about contamination / damage of the shoes etc, etc, etc......

 

[Clarkson46]

Depends on what type you have. In the beginning they were made of brass, in later variants they were made of steel. So if you have a brass version, brute force and ignorance is not a good option. To do the job properly, you need to remove the drums and sort out whatever is wrong. PITA it may be, but short cuts seldom pay off.