Drum brakes - how much drag?

[Atrus]

OK, so I took Jack's advice and shaved down the shoe backing plates where they meet the adjusters. It helped. Still seemed to drag a little to much though. I noted that the bottom of the shoes is where the drum hits. I actually filed a *little* of the brake shoe material as well.

They turn decently now. I still here a little dragging. Is that normal? I thought they were supposed to a little.

Last year, the driver's side wheel would really heat up and you'd smell the burning brakes. I figured it'd wear in, but it never seemed to. I want to avoid that again, it's the whole reason I am re-doing the brakes again.

 

[dklawson]

The drums on the Mini should be similar. Filing a chamfer on the shoes to minimize initial drag is a routine thing.

On the Mini (again, should be similar) if the drums aren't adjusted right you get excessive pedal travel before the brakes engage. The rule I follow is you should be able to spin an elevated wheel and hear a bit of scraping/drag. The wheel should also stop within about 1 revolution when you stop spinning it.

 

[Atrus]

Cool, thanks - I'll throw a wheel on there and give it a shot. I think that's about where it's at.

 

[jlaird]

Agree. Usually tighten with a screwdriver by hand and back off one.

 

[Dave Russell]

A good brake shop can "arc" grind the shoe linings to exactly match the drum radius. 100% shoe to drum contact from the start. No compromise brake shoe drag adjustments & fooling around. This used to be standard procedure at brake shops as they didn't want to send a car out with less than optimum brakes.

Many shops will do this fitting if you just take the drums & shoes to them.

Fitting shoes with a lining that doesn't perfectly match the drum radius, & few do, can take many miles of sub optimum brake operation to wear the shoe linings to a match with the drums. The lining is not supposed to wear quickly to a match.
D

 

[regularman]

If it drags, just pull the parking brake up a little and drive a bit and this will wear some off the linings and free it up.