Hi folks,

So I just spent the day replacing my rear drum brake shoes (98 civic) and I'm running into a snag. No matter what I do, the brake pedal goes to the floor and I only get about 20% of the original braking capacity. The e-brake works as before and the handle seems properly adjusted. I've done this minor surgery on previous vehicles without trouble and this time around I even used the Haynes manual. I've performed a couple of Haynes suggested tests to verify that my brake booster is still air tight and it is. If it wasn't for the fact that I didn't touch any hoses or bleeders, I'd swear there is air in the system. The only thing I suspect are the self-adjusting levers. I believe they are supposed to spin a gear and subsequently vary the lenght of a rod to push the shoes further appart as they wear. Seems to me those levers (one per side) have tendancy to pull away from the gear. I've taken the drums off many times, shrunk the rod and pushed the brake pedal and I can hear (and see if the drum is off) the gear turn. What else could it be? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

that sounds about right... with the gear being the problem.
it should be pretty damn hard to get the cover on after the new ones are installed. You have to keep rotating that gear by hand until the final cover fits very snuggly over the pads. if that doesn't work maybe get a new spring kit and install that too. and absolute worst case scenario... bleed the system anyway.