I am trying to get a little more mileage out of my 96 LX wagon 1.9L (about 155k). Worked all day today on one side only of the rear brakes and still not finished. Ran into all kinds of issues, mostly with brake line and cylinder fittings/connections. With the new brakes finally on, now I cannot get the drum (new) on. I have the brakes retracted as much as I can, but I cannot seem to get them quite as far as they are capable of going because part of the adjustment mechanism is being forced against the backing plate. I also cannot get one of the shoes to set all the way into the cylinder no matter what I do, stopping as much as an eighth of an inch short.
In my inexperienced opinion the problem stems from too tight of an emergency brake adjustment, preventing the brake adjusting mechanism from properly operating over its full range because of how tight it is pulled from behind the backing plate. (Pulling on the brake handle kind of confirms this, being very hard from the start and only being able to be reasonably pulled for a couple of clicks).
Is the emergency brake adjustment for my car underneath the car and pretty close to under the e-brake handle, and if so should I anticipate that it will be rusted frozen, and if so I would certainly appreciate any hints to make the adjustment as painless as possible? Or could I possibly get lucky and be able to access such an adjustment from inside the car under the brake lever console? Thank you in advance for any comments/advice.
In my inexperienced opinion the problem stems from too tight of an emergency brake adjustment, preventing the brake adjusting mechanism from properly operating over its full range because of how tight it is pulled from behind the backing plate. (Pulling on the brake handle kind of confirms this, being very hard from the start and only being able to be reasonably pulled for a couple of clicks).
Is the emergency brake adjustment for my car underneath the car and pretty close to under the e-brake handle, and if so should I anticipate that it will be rusted frozen, and if so I would certainly appreciate any hints to make the adjustment as painless as possible? Or could I possibly get lucky and be able to access such an adjustment from inside the car under the brake lever console? Thank you in advance for any comments/advice.