Drum brakes?

[3onthetree]

Is there anything i can do to prevent my drum brakes from locking up so easily, because i feel like i'm gonna do it when it rains and kill somebody.

[Dave Young]

You may have something wrong with your system. I've been driving my truck with drum brakes for 18 years and I've never had them lock up in the rain. You may want to just rebuild them. It may free something up. If anything, mine are guilty of not locking up enough.

[Scooter3]

My Nissan did that and its got rear drums, I never really figured out what was causing it, I adjusted them, and did the whole backing up realy slow with gradual pressure deal, eventually they quit. What if figured was happening was that there was water getting in there some how. I also later found an axle seal leak, but Im not sure if that messed with my brakes or not. Mine also did it worse in the winter then in the summer, which is another reason why I thought water was getting in there, I thought it might be freezing. Just a thought

[3onthetree]

thanks scooter, i'll check for leaks, but dave do you know what rebuilding might cost?

[Dave Young]

I don't remember. I rebuilt my drum brakes about 12 years ago. However, I do remember that it wasn't that expensive. I was a poor college student, so it couldn't have been too much.

[Bob]

Dave is right, you can rebuild your rear brakes including cutting the drums,wheel cylinders,shoes and springs for less then $75. Then it would all be new

[riverracer]

There are different lining materials that perform differently, an example metallic linings work with heat, the hotter they get the better they work and vice versa!..

[Scooter3]

Save yourself some trouble, if you can only get one wheel up in the air at the time, take pictures out them before you take them apart. I put pads on mine a few moons back and could only get one wheel up in the air and I took one spring loose and they pretty much fell apart in my lap. Trust me, in this case pictures are worth a 1,000 4 letter words.

[bigdaddyslip]

it could be as simple as the self adjuster are locked and the over adjust clean em up with some brake clean and a wire brush might get off cheap.

[enicom]

those drums rode all it's way down by few shoes