Well, I've done rear brakes a number of times and I don't think there's any
magic number involved here.  You want the shoes just *barely* away from the
drum.  So, adjust the shoes until they are dragging pretty heavily.  Spin
the wheel and have someone pump the brakes frequently to assure the shoes
are centered while you're bringing the shoes out to the drum.  Then back off
a click at a time.  Continue the spinning and pumping.  When the drag is
pretty much gone - maybe limited to the periodic slight grab where the high
spot in the shoes meets the low spot in the drum - that's good enough.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Oxroad" <Oxroad@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 12:12 AM
Subject: adjusting rear brakes

> Have we agreed on a system for adjusting the rear brakes? Turn the star
> adjuster until wheel can't be turned by hand then back off (loosen) 8
clicks, 10
> clicks, 15 clicks?
>
> Bentley offers nothing except to say when installing new brakes "Depress
the
> pedal several times before driving so that rear brakes self adjust." OK.
Then
> how about I depress the gas pedal several times to adjust the timing.
>
> My self adjusters don't work. And they never will. And believe me it has
me
> AND the brake pedal sufficiantly depressed with little or no improvement
to the
> braking.
>
> I checked the archives and found discussion on adjusting but didn't find
any
> numbers as far as to specifically how how much to tighten then how much to
> loosen.