Slight drag with new brake shoes on

[Reverend]

Hiya. Yesterday i replaced old wheel cylinders and shoes. When drum on place i can hear slight dragging against it when rolling it. Cylinder adjusters are in min. position.

Can it be that the drums are not round or is it common that new shoes drag for a while?

[Gary in NJ]

With new components, a little drag is normal. As long as you don't have to fight with the wheel to turn it, it should wear in well.

Hopefully it will wear in before it wears out.

[mgood]

It also could be the lip of the dust shield (? name) on the inside. I refurbished my rear suspension and the lip of the dust shield was slightly bent down and was doing the rubbing on the drivers side.

[John Coffey]

The rear brakes work best if there's a slight drag of the shoes against the drum.

[Reverend]

Thanks for the hints. We adjusted wheel cylinders yesterday and now the brakes work fine. Now i gotta bleed'em again as yesterday i did it on wrong order starting from the passenger rear first. When braking, the pedal goes all the way to the bottom but if you pump it few times you'll get pressure and the car stops.. Maybe there is still air in the system?

[Reverend]

Problem solved. Just needed to bleed with TIME, a lots of it.

[70 Cam Guy]

Whenever I replace wheel cylinders or calipers, or flex lines, I like to do one side at a time where possible. Just yesterday I did the calipers on my friend's Jeep and did one side at a time. When replacing a caliper or flex line I will gravity bleed that corner before setting foot on the pedal or pressure bleeding. Once the air bubbles have stopped from the bleeder, I have a helper in the car do the pedal for me. I instruct them when to pump up the pedal, hold it down, release, etc.

You should always verify you have brake pedal before going on a test drive