Often times cars with drum brakes have braking issues when the drums are adjusted either to tight or to loose. When you replace the shoes you will almost always need to make some adjustments.

How To Adjust Drum Brake Pads

Most drum brakes have what is known as “adjustment stars” basically it’s a star shape wheel that is located behind a hole on the back of the drum plate.

Most times a screw driver works just fine but using an adjustment tool can make the job easier on some vehicles.

The object is to tighten the drum until the wheel will not easily turn. Then back the stars off a few clicks. You should be able to spin the wheel once and have it stop on it’s own. This will give you the right amount of gap.

Our master tech Willie B shows that it really is a pretty simple procedure.

First removing the caliper bracket and assembly is required.

followed by removing the axle nut and wheel speed sensor.

Watch the video for detailed instructions and don’t forget to share it on facebook! This will save you hundreds of dollars if you do it yourself!

How To Bleed Brakes

That is not always the case however when using a VERY simple technique that the guy in this video is demonstrating called “gravity bleeding” To do this you are going to usually start at the passenger side rear wheel (farthest from the master cylinder and work your way closer wheel by wheel. Essentially all you are doing is opening the bleeder screw and then let it drip! The guy in this video lets fluid build up vertically to prevent air from returning to the system as well.

Your master cylinder is higher than the bleeder screws so while it may take more time than pressure bleeding gravity bleeding is a sure fire and easy way to rid your car’s brakes of air and you can do it yourself. I’ve also used this technique when even pressure bleeding didn’t seem to do the job. So crack open those bleeder screws grab a cold one and when your done just be sure to close the bleeder screws and top of the master cylinder with enough fluid.