I adjusted the rear drums last weekend and have been driving the car this week with "high and hard" brake performance.

I jacked the rear up, crawled under the car and use a large Allen-wrench and a matched 1/4" drive socket to turn the adjuster.

I dialed the adjusted in until I found the point where one more "click" would stop the drum from turning. I "whacked" around the drum to seat the shoes and found no additional adjustment needed.

Please let me know if this is too close.


The car has been braking beautifully, steering well (thanks to the "new" front end), and I think my mileage has had a significant jump.

The mileage raises my eyebrow a bit.

When I removed the old self-adjusting brake drums, I found the shoes were almost worn away. One bit was only a thick as a couple sheets of paper. A year ago these were a respectable 1/8" thick.

I never had any feel that the car was "dragging" but clearly something wore my rear brake shoes away to almost nothing.

The mileage may be because I replaced the jets and throttle shafts in my carbs as well restored the original throttle plates, and added insulator blocks. Still, I think the brakes played a role.