I replaced the rear brake shoes and bought a new set of drums. Now I get a ticking noise in one of the wheels when I apply the brakes in sync with the tire rotation. I can't figure out what's doing it. Everything looks to be in place and in good condition. The drums and shoes are clean and the adjusters seem to be set where they need to be. There's no damage to the backing plate. Any ideas?

 

i hate drum brakes for that reason. too many springs and crap to mess up. do they still lock up good? are you just rolling down the road and slightly pulling the e brake?

 

The brakes work perfectly fine. No pulling or pulsing. They just make that damn ticking noise. It's driving me nuts trying to figure out what the problem is. I've done a lot of drum brakes and yes they are a pain compared to disks. This has got me baffled.

 

Did you grease the backing plate/shoe contact points? And, since I've never bought new drums before, I'll ask....is the drum braking surface perfectly even when new and wouldn't require being turned? IOW, would there be any reason for the drum surface to be uneven that could cause the shoes to pull away from the backing plate slightly and kinda snap back against it when applying the brakes? Otherwise, the only thing I can think of....considering what you've said about the condition of everything.......is that the shoes simply need to break in..........though, I can't say I've ever had that problem. The ticking before they break in, that is. Hell, I've even reused all the springs several times over and never had that problem. Interesting this'll be.

 

Found the problem. One of the shoes was defective. The problem was that the friction material was hanging slightly over the edge of the metal part of the shoe which prevented the contact points from lying flat against the backing plate. This allowed the shoe to rock back and forth about the middle. The ticking noise was the top contact point slapping the backing plate. A few minutes with a rasp to remove the excess material fixed it.

 

Ah......how nice. Now you can have your sanity back....