Drum brakes question

[98civex]

Hi guys I had my rear drum brakes replaced about a month ago. All new hardware, shoes, drums.

Now my rear passenger ones are making a clicking noise at very low speeds.

Took the drum off to examine and noticed the front shoe had very minimal play at the tension spring (spring that holds the shoe against the backing plate)

The other shoe didn't have this play at all. Now my question is, how tightly held in place to the backing plate should the shoes be? Does a little play matter or?

 

[Restotech]

They should be pretty secure to the backing plate. It's a spring and clip and pin that hold them against the backing plate.

 

[98civex]

Little play at this spring clip. Btw that's not my pic, borrowed from the Internet as my car is back together at the moment.

Could I try prying between the two ends of that spring to give it more tension?

 

[Restotech]

You shouldn't need too. Check yours to make sure it's not broken. Post good pics of your brakes when you have it apart again so we can see if something stands out. It's hard to diagnose a drum brake noise without seeing what's going on. The noise may not even be brakes

 

[Joe Mason]

Should be any play there. Should be very tight.

 

[98civex]

It's definitely that retaining spring. Seems like it's either not as springy for correct tension or backing plate is rusted leaving it less of a strong surface for the pin to hold on to.

So I used a washer to help give a bit more tension

Would it be ok to drive around like this?

 

[Restotech]

Yes. Provided you backing plate doesn't fall apart from the rust. It looks pretty bad.

 

[98civex]

Yeah hopefully this will work for a while

 

[Joe Mason]

Woah, that's some serious rust bro. Ahhh I see you're in MA. No explanation needed haha.

 

[98civex]

Woah, that's some serious rust bro. Ahhh I see you're in MA. No explanation needed haha.

Haha yeah it sucks. Plus this car sat for a good while before I purchased it about 10 years ago

 

[Joe Mason]

I'll never forget the guy on here from Canada that referred to the rust as "Canadian Crispy". Made my day.