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** new school** What the &^%& is wrong with my brakes


glen

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Right.

my daily driver is a AE101 levin :doubt:

however it has currently failed it's WOF on the rear drums being to uneven lke ~30% out from left to right.

after this i took the rear drums off cleaned them all and adjusted them up however this apparently had no effect and it failed it's retest on the brakes still being to uneven.

Now the herpdurp wof man at vtnz said it could be the proportioning valve, but i thought that controlled the front and rear brake balance.

So in summary, why are my drums still uneven? :scratch:

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proportioning vlave does differnt wheels on differnt cars sometimes sides somtimes front to rear and sometime diagonals, so tahts still a possibility.

Maybe drums has bad wear and the pad isnt biting aswell? I'm guessing there was no sign of grease or similar prodcts on shoes when u cleaned them?

was the self adjuster working properly?

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is it out on the foot brake or hand brake or both?

if its the foot brake,take the drum off,get someone to slowly push the pedal so you can make sure the wheel cylinder is moving,if it isnt, clamp off the brake line,pull the cyl off and strip and clean it,if theres crap in there or anything you can give the bore a light sand with fine wet n dry,clean it up and reassemble it,bleed both rear brakes,adjust them up again,try that..

hand brake, find where the cables split,makes sure each cable has the same amount of play at all stages of travel,adjust the cable if you need to.

if its both then you could try swapping the shoes from left to right,adjust them up till you cant spin the wheel then back them off a couple of clicks...

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are the wheel cylinders both the same/of equal age? maybe sombody has replaced just one at some point.

I've done that before cos i was lazy and failed wof on the same imbalance thing at vtnz. Put new one of same brand on other side and it passed the recheck.

edit: when i failed one was new taiwan and the other was a 100,000kms old genuine

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Right.

proportioning valve,

I chased this on my wifes corolla for a few days, what you need to know is one side massively high or the other side low..

i ended up getting the valve rebuilt as it was cheaper than buying a new one.. I foolishly tried new shoes and cylinders first to no avail.

If it is low on one side then look at shoes and leaky / weak cylinders, if however it is high your proportioning valve is not doing it's job..

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Now the herpdurp wof man at vtnz said it could be the proportioning valve,

My money on that.

Not saying this is 100% certain the problem however. But I had the exact same problem on disc rear, nothing I did would balance them. Pulled the proportioning valve out (4 or 5 port on firewall on my ae111) took it apart, cleaned the crud out and bang 100% balanced brakes. Been a couple years now and brakes still pretty balanced.

There was like a 1/4mm ring of build up just stopping one piston (whatever) moving easily, washed the parts with brake clean and they came up like new. Pain to take apart, but a free repair. Apart from the brake fluid lost to remove / replace the valve.

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with drums i vote for checking there isnt a seized or partly seized wheel clyinder, if these are fine swap 1 shoe from each side (put top or front shoe from left side on right side and right top or front shoe on left side) as sometimes you can get one side that has overheated or linings been contaminated and dont work as well as the other side, this will even it out

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i just did all of the above that i noted to my cortina today after the brake test had read 0 left and 160 right...

now the lock up evenly with the handbrake,and brake performance has doubled and is now even...

everyone has tips on how to do the free adjustments...try them all...theyr free...

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GLEN ANSWER SOME FUCKEN QUESTIONS MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right what I would suggest,

If its a bit low on both foot and hand brake,

Take the leading shoe off both drums, and swap them over.

And then Swap the drums them selves over from each side

Adjust them up again.

I bet you will come up mint as

i get this ALL the time on Hiaces and can go from 30% to 0 percent (i'm not kidding either)

Its easy and worth a damn good try.

Trust me, Im a professional :)

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GLEN ANSWER SOME FUCKEN QUESTIONS MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right what I would suggest,

If its a bit low on both foot and hand brake,

Take the leading shoe off both drums, and swap them over.

And then Swap the drums them selves over from each side

Adjust them up again.

I bet you will come up mint as

i get this ALL the time on Hiaces and can go from 30% to 0 percent (i'm not kidding either)

Its easy and worth a damn good try.

Trust me, Im a professional :)

am going to try the above, will report back when i take it for a retest. :salute:

also cos im all lingling spec with drum brakes, how "tight" should they be once ive adjusted them, so i can easily turn the drums by hand or make it slighty difficult ?

chur.

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not allowed to drag at all, adjust them up untill the wheel dosnt turn by hand, then back it off untill the wheel spins freely. if you have removed the shoes when you adjust them up so the wheel wont turn it will also make sure the shoes are centralized in the drum.

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some adjusters are totally impossible to de ajust.

I usually do them so they are just starting to make a little noise like the drum i just touching the shoes.

I would suggest pumping the brakes in between putting everything back together and adjusting. As this is will center the shoes

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