How often do you pull rear drums

[ARB1977]

Originally Posted By: Falken
A star wheel adjuster is intuitive.

The way it goes where it just spins freely without hanging up on the bumps on the star is spreading the pads apart.

A brake shoe is only designed to adjust one way, outward.

Visually inspecting the star and seeing the way it snags to prevent it from turning the other way is the direction you spin it to bring the pads together.

Just remember, the way you rotate it easily without it binding is the way to spread the pads apart, and the reverse is to bring the pads together in case you adjusted them too far apart and can't put the drum back on.

They don't spin freely. You can hear a slight rub when spinning the drum.

 

[SS1970chrysler]

I pull mine (fronts also) once a year. Can't be too careful with single system brakes.

 

[01rangerxl]

My truck is approaching 145K miles and the drums have never been off or manually adjusted. The assembly line retaining rings are still on the wheel studs.

I probably should take them off and make sure everything is good, but I don't really want to mess with something that is working perfectly. The parking brake's grip is strong and I try to brake firmly in reverse every so often to keep the adjustment good.

On my last truck I proactively replaced the shoes, drums, and hardware even though they were still good. I never could get the new brakes to stay properly adjusted, so that's another reason why I'm not messing with something that isn't broken.

 

[another Todd]

I pull mine off when I hear a horrible grinding noise coming from them.

 

[demarpaint]

20,000 miles after a rear brake job, then at every tire rotation which is typically every 5,000-6,000 miles. Rear drum brakes last a lot longer than front disk brakes.

 

[Kestas]

I service mine roughly every 5 to 10 years. They suffer more from corrosion than from wear.

 

[wirelessF]

Early 2012 I pulled the drums I gave it a good cleaning (pressure washer ftw!), pulled apart everything, individually cleaned all the small parts and regreased everything. Found out the green grease I used back in early 2009 gummied up with nothing on the backing plates. Backing plates get antiseize, star adjuster and brake cylinder contact pts get moly grease. Might pull the drums early 2014 to see if the grease is still intact.

 

[Vikas]

You definitely want the wheel with the drum brake to have slight drag as you free rotate the wheel.