Adding self adjusters to 11" drum brakes?

[rarefish]

Have any of you guys converted your manually adjusted 11" drum brakes over to self adjusting ones? I have been thinking of doing that on 68 R/T. I have been checking out Rock Auto's listed parts and I was wondering if maybe I should buy the self adjusting kit for a 70 Charger with 11" drums. Any ideas on this?

[hemi68charger]

I have a similar thread on moparts like my thread below. It's turned into a speculation on doing just that. I can't think of any negative consequences.. I have the kits for 11" adjusters... If you need a part number, let me know..

Cheers,
Troy

[rarefish]

Troy, I would be interested in what part numbers you recommend. It looks like in in 68 style adjusting lever had a hook in it so it can attach to the shoe where the 70 style lever mounts on the pin that is pressed into the shoe. Also the adjusting cables are different between the two years. The 70 cable has the spring in the end that attaches to the lever while the 68 cable has just the hook on the end.
  Also unless I'm missing something, so far I do not see the lever return springs included in the any of the brake hardware kits that I looked at on Rock Auto.

[rarefish]

The reason I have been thinking of going to self adjusters is because of the problem that I ran into when I went to replace the front brakes.  Last fall I bought a set of Wagner front 11x3 shoes from Rock Auto to replace the original factory shoes that were still on my car. That's right, 40 years and still on the factory install shoes. Well when I installed the new shoes I wound the adjuster all the way in but was unable to get the drums back on.  After much studying the problem, I found out that the manual adjuster is about 1/2" longer in length then a self adjuster type one is when wound in all the way. It appears that the shoes made for the self adjusting brakes are made with a smaller gap at the bottom where the adjuster goes. And it seems that the re manufactured shoes that I bought from Rock Auto were originally from a car that had self adjusting brakes (70 and newer).

The picture below shows the new front shoes installed with the original manual adjuster being reused. The drum did not fit on with these shoes and adjuster wound all the way in.  I will either have to install the shorter self adjuster or grind some material off the edges of shoes where the adjuster mounts in order to get the drums on.

[rarefish]

Here is a picture of the the two adjusters showing the different lengths.  The top one is the original manually adjusted type. It has fewer and larger teeth. The bottom one is the self adjusting type.

[hemi68charger]

Here is a picture of the the two adjusters showing the different lengths.  The top one is the original manually adjusted type. It has fewer and larger teeth. The bottom one is the self adjusting type.

Thanks.. you'll also notice that the number of "teeth" is different as well.. The self-adjusting version has more teeth... If I don't modify mine to adjustable,, I'll probably sell the kits I have.. I'll let ya know in the next couple of days if that's ok...

Troy

[Charger72SE]

I just got done inspecting my rear drums on a 72 Charger and had to tighten the star wheel to get the drum off.

how do I set the self-adjusting brakes?

thanks much!!