New brake drums won't fit...

I've just bought new rear shoes and drums for my series III 88", fitted the shoes fine, and now the new drums won't go on. From what I can find on the internet this is a relatively common problem, but the answers I've seen people giving are things that I've already ruled out.

It's definitely not the adjuster setting.

I've checked and double-checked that the shoes are fitted properly, and are sitting straight. Also they're definitely the right size and so are the drums (10" for a SWB).

There's no pressure inside the pipes so the pistons on the wheel cylinder are pushed in pretty much as far as they can go.

I'm basically running out of ideas and starting to go nuts.
Any thoughts anyone?

Cheers.

check shoes are centralised and drums are correct compared to old ones, I had a feeling two sizes were used.

ive had this and seen it loads with me mates that have them ....the shoe's will be too big your either gonna have to find a set that fit or adjust the one's you have i had to chop a few mill off where it meets the cylinders to close the gap up and allow the drum on .....

i had this with mine, rears should be 10inch, fronts on later ones went to 11 inch but not sure when!
i got the 'top' of the drum on as far as i could while pushing down onto the shoes and worked the bottom half on then gave it a good kick and they popped right on! i guess i used the drum to make sure the shoes were properly pushed back into the cylinder.

All the new parts are exactly the same as the old ones, just newer.
Looks like it's gonna be a case of shaving the linings down a bit like Benny says.

They don't use asbestos to make brake shoes any more do they? Please tell me they don't...

I might be able to really force them on but then I guess the shoes will just be rubbing on the inside anyway.

no asbestos
try chamfering the leading and trailing edges first before yu go too mad

Cheers mad hat man.
Yeah fair point, don't want to end up with shoes as thin as the old ones.

compare old and new shoes and drums

Just fitted on my S3 1981 SWB new rear cylinders, shoes, pipes, drums and bled the system. Drums go on but...appears to be high on the lead shoe both sides so the wheel sits wonky!.. I’m guessing the shoe needs fettling but where? So near but so far to getting it rolling again . Any ideas?

boristhes3 said:

Just fitted on my S3 1981 SWB new rear cylinders, shoes, pipes, drums and bled the system. Drums go on but...appears to be high on the lead shoe both sides so the wheel sits wonky!.. I’m guessing the shoe needs fettling but where? So near but so far to getting it rolling again . Any ideas?

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What make of shoes are they BP ones by any chance.

cornish rattler said:

What make of shoes are they BP ones by any chance.

Click to expand...

Yup!..

boristhes3 said:

Yup!..

Click to expand...

Measure the linings on the shoes they should measure 8 1/2" long on mine with similar problems was between 8 3/4" - 9 1/4" long so replaced them with an almakes set which sorted the problem out

Britpart shoes have been getting good reviews this last couple of years.
Put the shoes side by side with your old ones to compare them.
I assume you have the adjuster cam backed off fully.

I've recently rebuilt my Salisbury axle using mostly Britpart bits, including cylinders and shoes. No problem with fitting or clearance on the drums.

That being said, I did have to remove the shoes and cylinders becuase I'd layered up too much paint on the cylinder mating face on the back-plates.

Filed off the paint, refitted and centralised the shoes and drums went on perfectly.

I recenlty fitted Borg and Beck shoes, good quality and very good stopping power, about 2x the Mintex. The Mintex were lasting well and fitted well but took a lot of pedal pressure, the B&B are much higher friction. I suspect the life wil be less but that's not really an issue for us. The B&B shoes did need to be chamfered on the TLS fronts to stop them being too fierce.