Rear Drums - Adjusting??

[jackkpts]

Are the rear drums self adjusting or is there a manual adjustment needed? I was reading some older posts on the subject but there was no conclusion. Here's why I ask:

My daughter's '02 DX has not been driven in about 2 1/2 months. When she pulled out yesterday, there was a slight noise from the driver rear as she backed out. Then, there was some grinding as she pulled away. It was quite noisy from inside the cabin, but not that loud from the outside. After a mile, she brought the car home. My wife said it sounded like something was dragging under the car (nothing is). I test drove the car, doing a series of stops, some slightly hard. Problem persists.

I watched the video on rear drum brakes (on an Escort) from the link in the older post mentioned above. I jacked the car up and confirmed that there was some noise and drag from the driver rear. I pulled the drum off and sprayed the drum and shoes with brake cleaner. There were no rust particles, small chunks, etc. There is however some drag, which sounds very similar to the noise from the video.

So, do I need to do some kind of manual adjustment to get rid of the drag? Do I just drive the vehicle as the author suggests and the noise will go away? If there is a manual adjustment needed, how is this done?

Thanks for your help!

[Raider9864]

Sounds like a rust issue to me. After that long the rotors and drums will rust and sometimes can be fixed just by driving the car. Manual adjustments are made by the star wheel. It's pretty noticable and nothing else looks like it. Sometimes there is just a spring that holds it in place and other times there is a little clip. If its the spring type you can adjust by spinning the star wheel forward or reverse (tightening or loosening). If its the clip you will need to pull it towards you off of the star wheel and then spin it if you are trying to back off the adjusment. The only purpose of the clip is to hold the star wheel in place to prevent it from backing off and likewise with the spring.

[smokstac]

I'll bet your parking brake cable is rusted...this can cause the brakes to drag. Do you ever use that? A slight amount of drag is normal if you disengage the parking brake and turn the wheel. This shows that the brakes are properly adjusted.

I would think if your brakes were out of adjustment and too tight then you would likely have not gotten the drum off...or it would have been very difficult.

If the drums came off without any trouble the sound probably isn't your brakes.

Could be a bad hub bearing as well.