Adjusting Rear Disc Brakes on 2002
 

Hey All,

Newbie here. I looked around for this and found some threads addressing adjusting rear breaks. I have disc breaks on the rear and could not find the 'star' wheel others have referenced. I did find the slack adjuster off of the e-brake, but from what I understand this is not the proper way to adjust the rear brakes on my truck. It's an 02, 2500, 4x4. Any help??

Well, you should have rear discs. So, no adjustment necessary. Now, the parking brake uses a drum brake internal to the rotor hat and that can be adjusted.

Dave

Thanks. I guessing I need to take my rear discs back off.

Before you tear it apart, what are you trying to achieve or what is wrong??

Dave

e brake adjustment

inboard, look at the inside of the backing plates

you will find oblong rubber plugs recessed into the spider area.

Pull these plugs out, and adjust the e-brake shoes using the starwheels that you will see through those holes.

Or, plan B. remove the rotors, measure the inside of the e brake "drum. take that measurement minus .020". set the shoes to that spec, and re-install the rotors. That is the way that Ford used to do it on their diffs. It works, but rather time consuming.

Okay, I will check it out. I am assuming that by inboard, you mean looking from the differential towards the back of the rear tires (?). I looked for those damned plugs, and could not see them. Can you get to them there plugs with the wheels on? Or is the process easier if I just take them off first?

They aren't easy to get to, but it's a lot faster than pulling everything apart. Once you do them once it will only take 5 minutess the second time. Get a pair of needle nose to help pull the rubber plugs out of the hole.

Thanks for your help guys, I am on location pokin holes in the ground now but I will let you know how things turn out, and how many fingers I have left when I am done!!!

i gotta adjust my e brake too. lol no that i think about it

on my 01, the e brake worked for about 3 months, then, it didn't

Sooooo, when my rear linings finally separated from the steel plates, I had to change the brakes anyway. I also changed the seals at this point, and the e-brake shoes. Those stock ones were pretty skinny to say the least.

It wasn't difficult, just a pain in the butt. And yeah, you have to look for those plugs, they are recessed a bit.

You didn't happen to shoot a pic of those little Bast.... Buggers while you were down there did you??

Nah, I have never seen a (truck) rear end that was worth taking a picture of.

Like I say though, dive under there with a decent flashlight, and you will see what you are looking for, a long set of needlenose, with a 45 degree bent tip is handy to remove the plugs.

Eye Captain!!! I'm Goin' in

[QUOTE=Or, plan B. remove the rotors, measure the inside of the e brake "drum. take that measurement minus .020". set the shoes to that spec, and re-install the rotors. That is the way that Ford used to do it on their diffs. It works, but rather time consuming.[/QUOTE]

Okay, bad deal I think. Just dove under and discovered that the dealer (Christopher Dodge in Denver) who did my first brake job adjusted the cable tensioner all the way to the bottom. Sooooo do I have to back everything off, take off the rotors and measure everything up like you said above, or can I just back off the cable adjusters, adjust the e brake drum by feel and then adjust the cables to set the foot pedal?

Or should I just go ahead and get new shoes and forget the adjustment and start from scratch.

Waddaya think?

If they are already adjusted fully in, I think it is time for new E-brake shoes.

Okay, don't think I made myself clear. I don't think the star wheels have been adjusted just the cable. Do you think I should just bite the bullet, start from scratch and redo everything??

you might yet get away with adjusting the star wheel setup within the e-brake assembly.

jack the rear of the truck off the ground, then adjust the starwheels. tighten until you feel a slight drag, then back them off a bit.

See if your park brake works. If not, you may to go with new shoes. Many times, you will see guys adjust the cable to compensate for e-brake wear. not the best choice.

Let me possibly save you some time/trouble. The adjuster nut you mention under the cab should not be messed with: it was preset at the factory so your e-brake pedal had the proper feel for setting the e-brake.

The rubber plugs are the same used to cover the adjuster on drum brakes. They are shaped like a large tic tac on end, but flat. They look like metal but just pry out like advised. A brake adjuster works better than a big screwdriver and allows easier access to the adjustment process.

On my truck one side was bottomed out and stuck and the other star wheel was really hard to turn. I ended up pulling both rear rotors and dissassembling and lubing them with anti-sieze and putting everything back, then adjusting them the conventional way, jacked up and turning the tire until I felt a slight drag. this worked great and I haven't needed to touch them in over a year and a half and they hold fast.

The drivers side wheel needs to be turned DOWN to tighten.

The passenger side gets turned UP to tighten. Good luck.

Kurt

Thanks pind,

I guess worse case I have to replace the old shoes but I will have the rear end off the ground already anyway.

Regarding the cable adjustment, just back it off all the way, adjust the e brakes and then adjust the cable for best brake pedal position?

How far down should the pedal drop before the e brakes engage fully?

Thanks again

Hey by the way, nice dozer, couple of places in IL and DC I'd like to test your blade on!!! [tapdshut] [nonono]

I wouldn't mess with the cable adjuster at all at this point, I would adjust it at the brakes and see if you can't get it to work properly there. After you get that working I would evaluate how the pedal feels and if it's at full engagement at the very top, or doesn't engage even when on the floor, go back and adjust the cable.

Honestly a good afternoon of just dinking around under the truck would probably solve the problem, I'm sure once you get to messing with it the proper course of action will become readily apparent and you'll get it fixed up in no time! Also might not be a bad idea (since you were inquiring about it) to snag some pictures while you're under there and post them up, so if someone is searching for the same problem down the road there are some reference pictures.

Maybe this will help a little.

http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/41...600x600Q85.jpg

I could not see the adjuster locations at first, they were packed in with dirt.

I ended up taking off the wheels to check the shoes to make sure they were still okay. SLIM51015 thanks for the diagram. Made sure to clean up and lube the mechanisms while I was in there.

Driver side adjusters are on top, passenger side are on the bottom. If you are doing this for the first time, do the driver side first, they are harder. While adjusting the star wheels, you can feel them tighten up when the shoes come in contact with the hat drums. At that point I gave then two adjustments back, and it seemed to be just right. On my truck, the driver side adjusted up to get the shoes to move out to meet the drums, passenger side was the opposite.

The adjusters are located in the depressions by the letters BR. Inside of the depressions is the rubber dust plug that you must remove to get to the star wheel. Don't forget your flashlight!!!! Pind was right you will need it. GFB was right also, first time is a real Bummer after that it's a breeze.

If someone has tightened your cable adjuster in the past, back it 90% of the way off. Adjust the star wheels and then re-tighten the cable back up. Check your pedal while you do. Set your brake and release it a few times, it comes up really fast, just don't get it to tight or you will wear the shoes faster.

Thanks For all your help guys. Hopefully this post will come in handy for others in the future.

Hey pind, it's not a pretty rear end, but at least my wife didn't mind me taking a close up of it!!!!

Hope these pics help.

Thanks for the pics wyododge. I swear I've looked under there a dozen times and gave up because I basically saw nothing that could be a rubber plug area. I'm gonna try it tomorrow....

Hey ADMIN People,

Any chance that you can change the title of this thread to adjusting rear e brakes on 2002 w/ discs.

I wouldn't look like such a pin head that way!!!! [duhhh][duhhh][duhhh]

Thanks Guys