Should my brakes be dragging slightly?

[Mark N.]

I just repacked my bearings and in spinning the hub with the wheel off, I can hear and feel some slight brake drag. It only occurs a certain spot on the drum, not an even drag all the way around. I can feel the drag too at this spot in each revolution.
Both right side wheels are doing this (I haven't got to the left side yet.).
The hubs slipped on over the brakes with no effort.

[8.1al]

You may be hearing the magnets rubbing on the drum

[Mark N.]

quote:Originally posted by 8.1al

You may be hearing the magnets rubbing on the drum

Ah,ha! I never considered that. Would it be something that only rubs at a certain point in the revolution of the drum? It's like both drums are slightly out of round or something. Thanks.

[1retired06]

Take it for a test drive

[rohrmann]

Regardless of whether it's the brake shoes or the magnet making the scraping sound, it's probably no more than a couple thousand's of an inch out of round or in the case of the magnets, out of true flat. Not enough to worry about. When the magnets are free to move, there is the spring that keeps them in contact with the armature surface of the brake drum, and this will always scrape.

[Mark N.]

OK, thanks everyone! I'm putting the wheels back on and not worrying about it then. Now it's off to the other side!

[dieselguy]

Sounds pretty normal to me. It also sounds as if your brakes are near adjusted as they sit. Generally you want to pop of the plastic cover on the slots on the back side of the backing plate to get to the star wheel adjuster. While spinning the tire, turn the star wheel a click at a time until you do feel a slight drag and as you found it generally won't be uniform ... your brakes are adjusted. Just because it says you have auto adjusting brakes doesn't mean you can't set them initially by hand. It gives them an equal starting point to auto adjust from there on. If you go too far or have a tight auto adjusted wheel, take a second screw driver and lift the adjuster arm away from the star wheel and spin the wheel back say a half dozen points on the star and then go from there.

[Mark N.]

Thanks all! The wheel bearing repack is finished!