Drum brake adjustment release

[marine345]

Ok, so I retrofitted a yerf-dog gasoline powered go-kart with an EZ-GO electric motor and rear axle setup, complete with drum brakes for a school project (I'm in high school). I'll save the full description of this for another post.

Anyway, I found out the hard way that the original drum brakes didn't work all too well. So I took the drum off and oiled up all the mechanisms without contaminating the shoes. Drum brakes being a generally new topic for me, I pressed the pedal all the way down several times without the drum on, and the self-adjuster has now pushed the pads out so much that I can't get the drum back on. How do I release this adjustment so I can get the drum back on? thanks.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by marine345

Ok, so I retrofitted a yerf-dog gasoline powered go-kart with an EZ-GO electric motor and rear axle setup, complete with drum brakes for a school project (I'm in high school). I'll save the full description of this for another post.

Anyway, I found out the hard way that the original drum brakes didn't work all too well. So I took the drum off and oiled up all the mechanisms without contaminating the shoes. Drum brakes being a generally new topic for me, I pressed the pedal all the way down several times without the drum on, and the self-adjuster has now pushed the pads out so much that I can't get the drum back on. How do I release this adjustment so I can get the drum back on? thanks.

Find the flat metal arm that drives the star wheel when you push the peddle down.... carefully pry this metal arm away from the star wheel ( thiss is the adjuster) and turn the adjuster the opposite direction as the arm was turning it to screw the adjuster back in... that should do it.

[Coltf1991]

Yes that works or get a small flat head screw driver and spin the star wheel in the opposite direction as the adjuster and you can watch it pull the shoes in. Get them in to where the drum goes over them nicely but the shoes will still very lightly drag the drum surface