Thank you everyone for a very Good forum.
I have a 1994 Jeep Cherokee, 2WD 4.0L . Been pretty robust Jeep. I have an issue with the rear drum brakes. They dragged and destroyed the drum. I have all new parts coming so I will fix that. When I did the rear shoes, I only replaced the shoes, not all the hardware. This time I am doing all the parts. I'm guessing it is the E brake setting causing the problem. I'm going to replace the real wheel cylinders, the drums, the shoes and the drum hardware. Jeep has only 321,000 miles and still runs great. Those 4.0L and trans are indestructible.
I've had this issue before with my 1999 Chevy Cavalier. It was a warped drum in that case. Probably related to dragging brakes. I loosen the self adjusting etc and set it for a slight drag as it says in the manuals. But I get this issue. Obviously I am missing something. Previous to this, I changed the shoes only because they were worn at 100,000 miles. So I am doing something wrong. I do hate drum brakes replacement but I have done others in the past, no problem. But I am missing something. Any suggestions?
BTW, I sold the 1999 Cavalier only because the mrs demanded it and miss it. I am one of those guys who have had great luck with high mileage life in cars and let them run till they die. Well, the car is gone. And now, so is the mrs, now an ex. Should have kept the Cavalier. LOL
Any help is appreciated.
You might want to look into swapping out the drums for rear discs, it's a fairly common modification for the XJ. I've done it on later models with the Chrysler 8.5 rear axle, not sure what a '94 has. Rear discs from a Jeep Liberty bolt right onto that axle. (Late 1990s Grand Cherokee "ZJ" parts will work as well but you need to enlarge the holes in the backing plates a little bit.) Also the proportioning valve guts need to be swapped.
Makes a bigger difference than you might think and once in place it's much easier to work on than the drums. Jeep forums will have details, as well as youtube videos such as this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEPlnCPbm-g
I have all the drum brake parts. For now, I will just do the brakes as it is now. But I like that suggestion as I plan to keep my Jeep for a long time. Its my beast. Going to switch to the back disc rotors is a good plan since I will plan to pull some light trailers. Trailers are hard on
brakes.
It was pretty straightforward when I did it. Not sure if the '94 has the same rear axle though so you'd need to check on fit if it's different. The rear discs do have a small, simple drum parking brake that fits inside the "hat" of the rotor. Once set up and adjusted they won't need to be touched again for a long time.
Another thing to be aware of on drum brakes that is sometimes overlooked is the contact points on the backing plate where the shoes ride wear over time. On a decades-old, high mileage vehicle they can wear enough that the shoes don't sit square inside the drum. Usually that's fixed by welding some material on and grinding it down to the correct height. (Or installing new backing plates if available.) Something to keep in mind if the brakes still drag after installing the new hardware.
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks. Not sure if maybe something I did wrong. Because it did not do that prior to Me changing the shoes.
I really hate working on drum brakes. That was my main reason for converting to discs. Another thing to be aware of on those rear disc upgrades by the way is if you have ABS that would need to be disabled. On 1992 and later XJs I'm pretty sure all you have to do is remove the ABS fuse and relays but you'd want to confirm that on a Jeep tech forum if you have ABS and want to do the conversion. I've found cherokeeforum.com to be a great place to get good info.
Replacing ALL the hardware and springs is a smart move. Make sure you haven't switched the spreader bar for left to right. Try to get a good diagram of the left and right sides and don't mix up the parts.
I took pictures of the right and left side before I did the work. I think my e Brake was dragging . That makes sense since the E brake works the Back drums. I pulled off the back Passenger side. It was carved up pretty good. And the shoes were ugly. Leads me to believe the brakes were dragging. And the springs were not able to pull the shoes away
Make sure all the linkage points for the E brake are lubricated and working properly. A broken or crudded up return spring on the E brake shoes could cause the dragging.