Today changed front and rear shoes and drums on the 72 lark. Also did wheel cylinders on the rear as they were leaking. My issue is that there doesnt seem to be anything that adjusts the tensioner on these. Am i missing something? Anyone have pictures of the brakes without the drum on? Is there something different on the buick shoes that i am not used to? I have the ebrake, plate we will call it, that has a tab that goes in a hole on the shoe. There are 2 springs on the top to hold the shoes, the pins to hold the shoes on with the round springs, and at the bottom there is the tensioner and a spring. Thats it. Doesnt seem to be anything that turns the teeth on the tensioner.
Should be an actuator (triangular plate) that comes down and hits the teeth on the adjusting screw when you back up and hit the brakes.
Sometimes i just wonder what the **** the previous owner was thinking. Side note, i meed to bleed the rear, due to changing the wheel cyliders, but now when i press tue brake pedal to the floor, the dash brake light comes on......why?
You have a combination valve that senses when either the front or rear brakes (separate systems) loose pressure. It triggers the brake light, indicating that either the front or rear system has lost pressure. Combo valve is a block below the master cylinder attached to the frame where your 2 lines from the master cylinder go into. There is also a wire from the combo valve that goes to your brake light switch. When you bleed the brakes, you should probably put a brake bleeding tool in the valve. The combination valve should have a threaded hole in it where you screw the brake bleeding tool in (usually has a rubber cap over it). It keeps both the front and rear systems open when you bleed. I think they have a button that you can hold down while you bleed, but I've never been able to do that. Sometimes you can reset the combo valve by mashing on the brakes real hard when going 20 or so mph (if there is fluid in both the front and rear master cylinder) if your valve is closed and you can't get it to reopen.
Appreciate the tip. I dont have the bleeder tool, so i will have to resort to having my son sit in the drivers seat and bleed them the old fashioned way. I fear that it is going to take awhile as ther is not much pressure on the pedal at all though.
I have adopted gravity bleeding with a clean water bottle to catch the fluid. This works very well and can be done without enlisting my daughter to work the pedal...
I take old single use water bottles, and make sure they are clean and dry. Then I put a bit of clean brake fluid in them. I like to do two at a time. I hook these to the bleed screws with a clear hose that is submerged in the clean fluid. Then I crack open the bleed screws and wait. check about every 20 minutes to make sure the fluid in the master is still topped up. After an hour, tighten the bleed screw and test. With this method you can even squeeze the brake to drive out bubbles and when the pedal is coming up it will pull fluid from the bottle. I would flush every line completely before starting to be sure any fluid pulled back into the system is new.
