UPDATE 6-26-22 PART DEUX:
Ah yes, about the shoes....
Reminder - these are Porterfield manufactured in California; supposedly their "street" blend of compounds.
Yeah, about that - they, in my opinion,
have no business on a passenger car driven on streets mostly.
They sure as heck don't get along with self-adjuster systems, that's for sure - which just seemed to exascerbate
the whole heat/chatter/pulling situation experienced.
They have tons of BITE, sure...
Anyways, back to the job at hand. I tore apart both sides and took the shoes to the bench, where each had the
pin for the self-adjuster removed, then each was chucked into the vise and the compound surfaces sanded down
with 100-grit on an orbital sander:
I couldn't help but notice that rich dark "carbon" coloring the shoes came out of the box with
was all but gone - but I managed to get them fairly smooth and de-grooved again.
Factory Service Manual whipped out for reference, I noticed something right away - seems the
self-adjusters they show in it aren't the same as the ones I was using:
Didn't much matter at this point - I had already determined I was going manual adjustment from here on,
using these:
New manual adjusters and bottom shoe springs from Raybestos. $25 for the lot, not bad.
The springs are even Made in USA. The adjusters are
substantial, heavy duty for sure (ordered specifically
for HD brakes) but Chinesium nonetheless. They're much heavier and larger than the factory ones.
All the self-adjuster hardware now successfully removed from both sides, a pile was formed of same:
Back together went both sides and once installed, the adjustments began - from behind the backing plate, the
adjuster wheel gets spun UP on drivers' side and DOWN on passenger side (they are both threaded the same,
unlike the factory LH/RH ones).
I got things close by adjusting until I just was able to get the drums back on, then finished assembling and
re-installed the wheels...
Got the wife in the car and began the "spin the wheel/slam on the brakes" dance to get everything all squared
away inside the drums, then began adjusting from the slots in the backing plates, each time spinning the wheel
and having her repeat the procedure.
Once I felt comfortable that the slight drag on both sides was adequate and fairly even side to side, it was all over.
Fred was down on all fours again, I was a sweaty/filthy mess and the brake pedal felt fantastic.
That's where things will remain now as local short trips will re-bed the shoes and establish wear patterns, with
me making any slight adjustments manually as needed along the way.
Job done....so who caught what was up with the hardware? There's actually a couple things there that raised my
curiousity for sure.
