Rear Drum Brake Adjustment Guide/Pictures - 5sfe 1994 Camry Australian Model

[Al96]

Hi All,

I did the rear brakes (drum) the other day and decided to post some pics on this forum. I adjusted the star-wheel. The handbrake is tight now and the car brakes good.

Sorry for the low budget maintenance/repair, I am a student and have borrowed money from my parents to buy this car. Steps are as follows.

1. Jack up the car securely (you can use bricks and jack togather or better to use jack stand unlike mine)

2. Remove tire

3. Remove drums fairly easy they just slide off once you tap with hammer (all sides).

4. Clean everything inside.

5 Put drum back

6. remove rubber plug and look for that start wheel in hole as shown in pictures. This lies on top in my model under the brake cylider (yellow cricle in photo). repair manual might say it is on the bottom side thats not in my case.

7. Slip in a screwdriver and move wheel downward it will click or might not click if its messed up. DOWNWARD - tightens the brakes. tighten it until when you rotate the hub axle with drum on, you feel the drum has drag to it (brakes shoe are lightly touching the drums but letting it move).

8. dont tighten too much other wise you have to take drum off and lossen it by moving upwards and repeat everythign.

Enjoy working!

Cheers,
Al

[Mazeraski]

I just replaced both drums, shoes and hardware on my Camry about a month ago. For me it was a pain adjusting the brakes because I kept giving the spiked wheel either too many turns or not enough. I got it after a few tries on each side though.

Referring to your directions, you don't want to put the drum back on before adjusting the brake for obvious reasons Move step 5 to the end.

I'm not sure what rubber plug you are referring to in step 6 either; all you have to do with mine to access the adjusting wheel is take the drum off. Also when you clean the inside of the drum you'll probably want to use brake cleaner.

Other than that, DIY's are usually appreciated on this site especially when coupled with pictures Welcome to TN.

[DarkMastyr]

Drums are a bitch and a half to do from experience.

Not sure what you're doing with step #7, but you should turn the star key so that the brake shoes retract as much as is needed to put the drum back on. Don't try to fenagle it into fitting just right--it's a self adjusting star key. Once you put the drum back on, you pull the e-brake a dozen times for the star key to self adjust the shoes to the drum.

edit: nm I see you're forcefully readjusting in the case that the star key self-adjustment is not working properly.

[Al96]

Thanks for input. Both my auto adjusters do not work. So I had to do it myself. I have tried reversing and pulling up handbrake dozens of times before.

The reason for putting drum back before is that you dont get the right 'feel' to it (drag) unless you rotate with the drum on it. if you tighten starwheel with drum off you will have trouble gauging how much you have to tighten/extend/expand the shoe. Putting drum back and then removing for readjusting will also be problematic.

So i put the drum back as the brakes are aleady retracted/worn from prior use. then tighten the starwheel to make it tighter. The only way to access the starwheel with drum on is to take the rubber plug off (located on the hole in the drum). that part is not shown in pictures. I was more intent to show starwheel and how it works in my model.

[xtremeskier97]

Nice jack stands!

[Knailgun]

Originally Posted by xtremeskier97

Nice jack stands!

I thought that too

damn your RHD manual.......nice write up though

[Mazeraski]

Originally Posted by Al96

So i put the drum back as the brakes are aleady retracted/worn from prior use. then tighten the starwheel to make it tighter. The only way to access the starwheel with drum on is to take the rubber plug off (located on the hole in the drum). that part is not shown in pictures. I was more intent to show starwheel and how it works in my model.

Ah I see, you weren't as clear before. This part I was not aware of because I was under the impression that you changed the shoes out. Thanks for clearing that up

Originally Posted by Al96

The reason for putting drum back before is that you dont get the right 'feel' to it (drag) unless you rotate with the drum on it. if you tighten starwheel with drum off you will have trouble gauging how much you have to tighten/extend/expand the shoe. Putting drum back and then removing for readjusting will also be problematic.

I was taught to do it by tightening/loosening then putting the drum back on and seeing if it were sufficient. If not, I just take the drum back off and adjust accordingly. Not sure how it's problematic, more of an annoyance than anything. However, when I did this I changed out everything (new drums, new shoes and new hardware) so nothing was worn in yet, thus I had to start from scratch with the adjusting. But thanks for clarifying

I am also envious of the 5-speed...

[ghettosled]

if your auto adjusters dont work - fix them while youre at it. the only thing to keep them from working is they could use some cleaning and fresh grease. if you spend the 5 minutes to remove the shoes, you can take the adjuster apart. its a very simple piece, though i cant figure out why you can turn it by hand but it doesnt adjust when you pull up on the parking brake.

and just for reference, i just replaced my shoes and drums a couple of nights ago. when i used the parking brake to automatically adjust the shoes, i literally had to pull the handle all of the way up about 30 times to adjust the brakes. i heard the clicking of the adjuster as i was doing this.

[Al96]

Originally Posted by xtremeskier97

Nice jack stands!

haha thanks!

and thanks everyone for your comments.

5 speed manual helps me save petrol