I’m so smart

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Disco

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Hey. So dum-dum here started a brake job in MARCH, and due to needing to order more parts, a very busy second half of a semester after spring break, and an excruciatingly hot summer, I’m only just now getting back to it.

I left everything organized, but I’m second guessing myself and how all this drum brake crap goes back together. I know there are two different size friction materials on the shoes, and I know they have to be installed on the correct side of the backing plate… I just don’t remember which is which, and these AutoZone shoes don’t do anything to help jog the memory, as the metal part of the shoe is identical, regardless of which size FM plate is on it.

Can someone help me remember which shoe goes to the REAR of the truck with the parking brake lever?

Thanks
 

Disco

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Also, could someone tell me where this goes? There isn’t one on the old hardware.
 

Radiohead

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Also, could someone tell me where this goes? There isn’t one on the old hardware.
That is the inspection hole plug, where the adjuster spoon goes through the backing plate
 

Radiohead

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Hey. So dum-dum here started a brake job in MARCH, and due to needing to order more parts, a very busy second half of a semester after spring break, and an excruciatingly hot summer, I’m only just now getting back to it.

I left everything organized, but I’m second guessing myself and how all this drum brake crap goes back together. I know there are two different size friction materials on the shoes, and I know they have to be installed on the correct side of the backing plate… I just don’t remember which is which, and these AutoZone shoes don’t do anything to help jog the memory, as the metal part of the shoe is identical, regardless of which size FM plate is on it.

Can someone help me remember which shoe goes to the REAR of the truck with the parking brake lever?

Thanks
The shoe with the longest lining goes to the rear
 

Goldie Driver

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A metal plug? Odd.
Also, I don’t have an inspection hole in my backing plate. Maybe there’s one in the drum?
OE drums - at least the 11.15 ones like on Goldie - have a knock out plug that you have to fill once it is out. I have never seen a metal one - only rubber.


Interesting!
 

Disco

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Yeah, I’m not sure what this thing is. I have 4 of them. They came with both the brake hardware kit (x2) and with each self-adjuster hardware kit.
 

Bextreme04

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Yeah, I’m not sure what this thing is. I have 4 of them. They came with both the brake hardware kit (x2) and with each self-adjuster hardware kit.
They fit perfectly on the backing plate for my 14BFF rear with the 13x2.5" brakes. Mine still had the original metal ones rusted into the original backing plate. I knocked them out and cleaned everything up when I rebuilt my rearend and installed the new ones from the hardware kit. They looked just like that.
 

Disco

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I’ll have to take a picture of my backing plate. This was going to be my next question anyway. I’m pretty sure my drums have no inspection hole in them, and I don’t believe my backing plate does, either. I don’t remember seeing anything that resembles an inspection hole at all, which has been making me wonder how one adjusts the drums.
 

Disco

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Rule #1 of drum brakes - one side at a time.
Agreed. But there’s a caveat.
Normally, I wouldn’t have opened both sides.
When I bought the truck, the right rear brakes were completely frozen. The friction material was bonded to the drum by rust, and the process of pulling the drum off broke the hold-down pins, so the right rear was kind of in pieces to begin with. So I took the left side off to get an idea of how it all went together.
I did have pictures and I don’t know what happened to them. I also laid the parts out in the orientation in which I pulled them off in a sort of exploded view.
Then I had to order unexpected parts. That was spring break, and the parts did not show up until break was over. The following remainder of the semester was crazy busy, and by the time finals were over, it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the regular with a heat index almost constantly over 105. I don’t have a garage, just a paved carport. It has only just started cooling off enough that I am willing to work outside again, and by this point, I don’t trust my memory or my exploded layout.
 

Ricko1966

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I didn't read everything so this may be covered but here's the acronym BOB big on back. The rear shoe is the long shoe
 

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