Rear brake job from hell

[slow_90firebird]

Haha that's funny you say that because I bypassed the abs in the rear, but I never unplugged the box under the dash. No lights on either. Except when I first start it up of course.

I think I finally got the rears sorted out! I ended up buying 2 drums from NAPA instead. With my work discount they were only $5 more apiece than the advance drums. But when I had it apart I noticed why my ebrake was not grabbing good. I thought I needed to tighten the slack adjuster more after changing the brake cables. But it was actually the autozone shoes that were no good...

Where the top of the shoes go up against the round peg part of the backing plate, the autozone ones did not have enough extra metal on the rear shoe, so the little cam with the fingers was riding over top of the rear shoe... The forward shoe was still ok because it had the extra lip on the bottom.

In the end I went with napa shoes and drums. Nice and smoothe. Ebrake works great. But I will say that the bonded autozone shoes stop much better than the riveted napa ones. But I would rather have an ebrake.

[Diesel]

But I will say that the bonded autozone shoes stop much better than the riveted napa ones. But I would rather have an ebrake.

Bad shoes will cause that vibe!

I would guess the shoes from NAPA will stop the same once seated into the drum. Don't forget you had a shoe that was grabbing hard on an edge which would obviously cause firm braking and wobbles and quick wear.