OldIHC

I just replaced the brake shoes, wheel cylinder, and springs on one of the wheels on my 1950 l110 today, but when I tried to put the drum back on it barely fits over the shoes. The brake shoes are touching the drum and preventing the drum and axel from moving. The adjusting star is all the way screwed in and I tried moving the shoes to make room for the drum, but there was still no luck. What do I do?

Here are some pictures.

If you have the old parts, compare them side by side, it is possible that your shoes might be a touch to big? Just a thought.

My truck is a KB so I'm not sure this applies but there are adjusters on the inside side of the backing plate as well that if you haven't adjusted ,may help solve your problem .

I have compared the shoes, and they are the exact same length. The on difference is that theactual brake material strip is longer on one side of the shoes and shorter on the other compared to the original shoes. I will post a picture to better explain what I mean. As far as I know the star wheel adjuster is the only adjuster on the brakes.

I’m going to start out by saying I’m not an expert or a career mechanic. It’s actually been years since I’ve had any experience with anything brakes related. I’m only going to offer this suggestion because I’ve heard others offer it before. Check the drums to see if there is a lip formed along the outside of them from the previous years of wear by the older shoes. With new components, there may be very little clearance or seemingly not enough clearance due to all the high spots associated with new components. It could be possible that the new shoes are not actually “bottoming out” in their positions and need to be tapped into place with a hammer to make them so. I don’t think I’d attack the setup with all my might, but use gentle tapping to urge everything into place. Check also to see if the shoes fit reasonably inside the drums and conform to the shape of the drum and the previous wear. You may notice that the leading and trailing edges of the shoe material are holding the rest of the shoe away from the drum surface, therefore being the “high spots” that prevent the drum from sliding over the assembled arrangement. (And I could be totally out in left field.) Brakes can be really frustrating sometimes.

One other possibility is that the anchor pin is either too high or too low, putting the shoes off-center in the drum. Might try loosening the big nut on the back of the backing plate and see if a little movement of the pin lines them up.

Ok I may try that.

Were the drums turned by a brake shop?

Take a rubber mallet and tap shoes around to center,

Other option is if you had them relined, they were done with to thick of brake pad, which then they would need to be turned down to original thickness or relined with correct thickness

Take the drum off the other side and see what you've done wrong. If the new shoes are the same as the old, then you've mounted something wrong. Maybe put the old ones back on the same way you have the new and see if you have the same problem.