["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by grivera

Wow- I had no idea and may have mine on wrong sides! Does this mean if facing the passenger side wheels from the back, the star wheel is rotated cw to expand the shoes, or ccw?

Looking at the right/passengers side, from the rear, the star gets turned clockwise by the adjusting lever pushing down on the outside of the star.
But
As dataway said, it takes 'left hand threads' on the 'right side adjustors' for the shoes to open up or spread out.

Right hand threaded adjustors, on the passengers side, will close the brakes up instead of opening.

I've worked on a few cars that left the factory with adjustors on the wrong sides. All had the same symptoms, low brake pedal and rear shoes with hardly any ware on them. Some had been drove long enough like that, that the rear wheel cylinders blew out.

Clay

[dataway]

So it sounds like an easy check would be, with the drum off, the star wheel should expand the shoes when rolled UP from the outside ... (which would be down if done from the inside). And all star wheels go toward the rear of the car.

Are the aftermarket adjuster still identified with the number/type of grooves like mentioned in the service manual? I bet mine are wrong ... I just grabbed adjusters out of the bag and installed them on whatever brake I was working on.

I bet this is one reason a lot of people don't think drum brakes work well, probably lots of adjusters installed wrong. It's been my experience that a well setup drum brake will stop pretty freakin good ... they just don't stop as well when they get hot.

[grivera]

Very interesting!

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by dataway

So it sounds like an easy check would be, with the drum off, the star wheel should expand the shoes when rolled UP from the outside ... (which would be down if done from the inside). And all star wheels go toward the rear of the car.

Drum off looking at it..The star teeth closes to you will roll down. Should click click click and shoes spread apart.

Have to hold the adjusting lever out with your finger to turn the star wheel back the other way. If the lever doesn't hold the star from turning back...Need to do some tweeking or your adjustor will close back up while you're driving.

Don't think it was GM but one of the domestic car companys had an adjusting lever that worked from the bottom. Adjustors on them worked exactly opposite to the type brakes being talked about in this thread. Think it was ford and it used a small cable to pull up on the lever.

Clay

[dataway]

Yes yes yes ... ignore my previous post about the wheel direction, Clay is right ... roll down looking at the wheel from the outside ... wish I could delete that post ... hate to have the wrong information there.

[Greg Reid]

Well, I'm not going to ignore all of the experience here so they will go small shoe front. Just bizzarre that both manuals, '66 and '68 would show that wrong. The '66 is a slightly different design and there's not as much difference in the length but it is there and same thing..long shoe front and labeled 'primary'.

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by dataway

I'm not sure that I checked my adjusting screws to make sure the proper ones were on the left and right side of vehicle. The right side adjusters front and rear have left handed threads.

I have to admit that I never paid attention to the thread direction--but the adjuster body is going to be stamped "L" or "R", so that's how I identified them. The marking is easy to see after the crud is wire-brushed from the outside, and the threads lubricated so the adjuster works like new.

Gotta watch for worn teeth on the star-wheel, and a matching worn spot on the adjuster lever piece that contacts the star wheel, though.

With Ford and Chrysler, having cable-operated self adjusters, I just thumb the cable and make sure that the adjuster expands. Harder to do on GM which uses a linkage system instead of a simple cable.

[Greg Reid]

Ok. Driver's side done. Short shoe to the front.

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[Greg Reid]

By the way, I noticed something else that appears wrong on both manual illustrations... The parking brake 'strut' appears to be backward with the narrow notch towards the parking brake lever. Should be the wide notch to engage the shoe and the lever. The other end has a stop for the spring and they show it away from the spring. Both manuals.

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[77 TRASHCAN]

Greg, you working on the 66 or the 68?

[Tom Vaught]

Since we know that the Pontiac manuals are wrong in some cases, I would propose a sticky with Sub-topics related to how the different parts should be installed correctly (USING PICTURES), be it Brakes, Tri-Power Linkage, Cars with Power Brakes have Chrome Trim around the pedals vs "Plain" Brake and Clutch Pedals on Manual Trans Cars.

You get the idea. Call the Sticky "HOW TO DO IT RIGHT"

Tom V.

[highway star]

This is left side on my '78 TA.
https://imgur.com/gallery/A7Ntktv

Also, it's good to use pads that are "riveted" on.

[Greg Reid]

77, I'm working on the '68. Finally got a Pontiac limited slip in place of the Olds 2.78 in there now.
Tom V. , not a bad idea. Think how many things had to go wrong for that to reach publication and not get caught. Those photos are the ONLY guidance in the manual to show us how things go. Nowhere does it describe which shoe is which except for that photo.

[indymanjoe]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

Since we know that the Pontiac manuals are wrong in some cases, I would propose a sticky with Sub-topics related to how the different parts should be installed correctly (USING PICTURES), be it Brakes, Tri-Power Linkage, Cars with Power Brakes have Chrome Trim around the pedals vs "Plain" Brake and Clutch Pedals on Manual Trans Cars.

You get the idea. Call the Sticky "HOW TO DO IT RIGHT"

Tom V.

Great idea.

[jonmachota78]

SSTTFMF!

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by jonmachota78

SSTTFMF!

lol! Ok, Ok!!

[nac46]

Hello All,

Does this apply to 61-62 Catalina brakes as well? Great brake photo BTW.

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by nac46

Hello All,

Does this apply to 61-62 Catalina brakes as well?

Are your brakes duo-servo style, with self-adjusters?

Your service manual should tell you for sure...or yank a drum off and look.

First Guess: Yes.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by nac46

Great brake photo BTW.

Here's another. I like the way the AC/Delco parts are color keyed for the 'side-specific' parts. Don't know what the platings are..zinc for one and cadmium for the other? I don't know but it helps when parts are almost the same but not quite.