Parking brake strut issue

[bull]

Both parking brake struts on the rear of my 68 (10" drums) had been tilting down and rubbing on the inner axle hub which wore a quarter moon-shaped notch out of them. It seems to be a design flaw but I don't see a real need to replace them as there is still plenty of strength there. I have a couple of questions though: 1. is this a common problem? 2. Is there a way to keep them up out of the way?

Now that the notch is there it may not be an issue but if there is an easy fix I'd be willing to try it. It seems like you could almost put a metal tab under one of the axle flange bolts for the strut to rest on. Or maybe use a bench grinder to shape a larger notch out of them so they would clear.

http://www.megapartsusa.com/proddetail.asp?prod=101%2DPB9823

[John_Kunkel]

I would guess that the shoes are pulling away from the backing plate when the brakes are applied.

[bull]

It's hard to explain but what I discovered is that the spring that goes on the front end of the strut is a lot bigger than the strut itself, allowing for a lot of pivot. There's a tab on the spring that when placed on the outside of the shoe allows the strut to pivot, hang down and rub. The FSM does not clearly show where you're supposed to put that tab but when I reinstalled the strut with the tab to the inside of the shoe it works great. I can push down on the strut toward the hub (where it had been rubbing) and it bounces right back to being flat and straight.

[ChargerST]

FSM says for 10" brakes: on ten inch brakes , be sure spring tab is pointing rearward and up on outside of shoe web (Left Brake), and pointing frontward and down behind shoe web (Right Brake).

11" brakes are different btw.

[bull]

FSM says for 10" brakes: on ten inch brakes , be sure spring tab is pointing rearward and up on outside of shoe web (Left Brake), and pointing frontward and down behind shoe web (Right Brake).

11" brakes are different btw.

Is that from a 68 FSM? If it's supposed to be outside the shoe on the left (driver side) that just doesn't work. I can check and see if it matters if the tab is to the back or front. I don't see how though.

[ChargerST]

This is from my 70 FSM but I doubt that the brakes are different between 68 and 70 (self adjuster is different though). I have 11" rear brakes so I couldn't check for 10"

EDIT: looks like the struts on 10" brakes are differen than on 11" brakes. on 11" the bent portion of the strut is way longer. because of that the strut doesn't tilt down. Here's a pic:

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,37014.0.html

[gtx6970]

Do you have the right struts?

these were just released as a new reproduction
750-1 is 71-75 with 11" brakes
9823 is 65-74 with 10: brakes
892-3 is 65-70 with 11" brakes

[bull]

Mine would be the 9823 set but the struts on my car don't have the little bend at the end as seen in the pic I posted above.