normal brake noise?
 

Neighbor had driven with bad brakes too long and needed new brake drums and shoes.

I replaced them and they work as advertised.

When he drives the cart there is a slight noise tied to the wheel rotation that sounds like a brake shoe that is making contact with the drum on each rotation. It is just a slight sound that I expect will go away after the shoes wear in.

What I can't figure out is why it only makes contact only once during a tire rotation.

Assuming the sound is a shoe rubbing the drum once per revolution why would it do that?

Anyone else experience this noise after a drum and shoe replacement?

Re: normal brake noise?
 

Are the sliders moving freely?

Re: normal brake noise?
 

They certainly were when I cleaned and lubricated them. One thing that is a bit confusing is the cart did not make the noise when I "fixed" it. I hadn't seen the cart for about a month......they drive it several times a week.....and the ticking sound is noticeable and consistent.

Any chance it could be an axle alignment issue?

FYI here is a pic of the left rear drum/shoe before I replaced it.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

OK - here's a far flung theory. Each of the star shaped self adjusters (thing at the bottom with the fine threads) has two washers (one fiber and one metal) which I imagine are precisely sized to keep the shoes just-barely-clear of the drum when the self adjuster advances the shoes. It is easy to have one of those washers fall to the ground and go unnoticed when you re-fit the brake shoes, because it happened to me. When I replaced my shoes a year or so back - I was refitting the drum and discovered (before putting the wheel back on, luckily) that one of those darn washers was on the floor below the drum. It had fallen off while I struggled to tug the lower springs back in place.

I am purely speculating, that the self adjuster could have moved those shoes too close if a washer was missing. And you wouldn't hear that rubbing sound until the shoe got adjusted over time. This is pure speculation on my part - Hows that for a wild a** theory? A simpler theory might just be new-shoe-dust - and a simple drum clean out might be all that is needed to make the noise go away.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

Thx for the info. I do recall the washers falling out, but I put them back in place when I installed the adjuster....at least I'm pretty sure I did :-)

The thing that I can't figure out is why did the damaged shoes/drums get like you can see in the pic before I replaced the drum/shoes. The only thing that makes sense to me is if the axle/seal was mis-aligned in a manner that would cause the drum to rotate in a non-circular manner.

When I think about it I guess that a brake adjuster that pushes the bottom of the shoes out too far could also cause the problem.

I guess my question is, what would cause the wear to the shoes/drum as shown in the pic before I "fixed" them.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

They are ugly alright - mine had very uneven wear (most worn-out on bottom edge but not bare metal) when I replaced them too. I speculated that my slider was stuck - but they weren't. When I asked, the best anyone came up with was that drum brakes are low-tech and are subject to uneven wear. The front shoe is different than the back shoe....you knew that and placed them accordingly, right?

BTW I replaced my axle bearings & seals because of wheel noise, but the bearing was OK, and so was the seal. All I needed to do was lube the circlip/bearing junction, I was told (after the fact).

Re: normal brake noise?
 

Placed them correctly. I have a repair manual and I left the right side on for comparison before installing. If the axle was "wobbling" it would have done that right after I installed the new shoes.

Here's a question I can't answer. What keeps the adjuster from continuing to push the bottom of the shoes outward? It's not exactly a smart mechanism.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

As far as I could tell - simple resistance at end of play. If the adjuster pushes the shoe against the drum, it can't do a full rotation and bring a new leg of the "star" in position for the adjuster to shove it. If I'm wrong, someone on this site in a higher pay grade, will correct me.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

Short answer is if you installed everything correctly, the slight rub is normal and will go away once the shoes seat in. Normally 6-10 miles of stop and go driving.

Re: normal brake noise?
 

Thank you all for the inputs. I know I'm beating this to death, but I guess it's just my curiosity about how things work.