Quote:
I have previously toyed with the external adjustment idea but decided it is not for me because
I think it is always better to remove the drums to see what is what.
Ian.
I agree with this in principal, one reason I haven't actually progressed the hole idea is, because it's not THAT much trouble to pull the wheels and drums off to do the adjustment. Even on my daily driven car the wear lip doesn't come back fast enough to necessitate it's removal more than every couple of years or so. And it DOES give me the opportunity to check the state of the shoes and cylinders on a regular basis. HOWEVER, I think, in my case, twice a year may be once too often. But for those whose cars do minimal mileage, a once yearly blow out and adjust is no bad thing.
One other thing to consider in FAVOUR of the manual adjustment hole, is that it allows you to back off adjustment before removing a drum. If a wear lip exists, it's a lot easier to back off adjustment than try to remove a drum with a considerable wear lip present! It's not a BIG problem however, as the fact the self adjusters largely DON'T work, mostly precludes the wear lip from causing the problems it does on cars with more efficient self adjusters. The later model Girling ones that are on Cavaliers (and MANY other models) are SO good that there is a grommet plugged hole in the backplate, not to adjust the toothed wheel, but to over ride the handrake actuating arm to get the drum off in the presence of a wear lip. It's the grommet/plug from one of these that i'd make my adjustment hole to accept!
Steve