How to replace shoes on Ford 8"?

Am having problems getting bottom spring attached on shoes in my '77 Ford Granada with 10" drums. Do I install shoes to backing plate first & then try install bottom spring (haven't been able to stretch spring across) or do I try an assemble shoes & spring as a unit before installing on backing plate, haven't been able to do that either. Can someone give me the sequence to infall these shoes?

 

we were trained by bendix to put the lower spring on first with the star adjuster ( turned all the way in ) then attach it to the backing plate then assemble up with the top anchor post springs last

 

I have had good luck with starting the spring on one shoe. Then hook a pair of needle nose vice grips on the other end a bit short of the hook part. Pull it over to hook in the other shoe. Works best without the adjuster in place and then install the adjuster. Or you can pull the shoes back off and install the spring before putting the shoes on the backing plate.

 

I too was trained to start with the lower spring and star adjuster. Then install on the backing plate.

 

Also keep a stick pin handy to pop the blood blister that the needle nose pliers cause! Come on.....I know I'm not the only one who has done that.

 

My dentist pesters me regularly about the discolored front tooth that developed from being smacked in the face by a pair of brake pliers working on my brother's VW bus back around 1980. The scar in the upper lip has faded but the tooth's still there. Probably do something about it this year...

As for the original question, yeah, crank the adjuster in, hook them together at the bottom, put the nail, spring, and cap on to attach it to the backing plate, juggle all the pieces into their appropriate little notches, pop the drum on and do a preliminary adjustment, then adjust again once the wheel's on.

 

One trick I learned is to install the back shoe with all the hardware on it and then hook the spring to both shoes and rock the front shoe around the adjuster and put it in place. After a couple of goes at it it gets pretty smooth.

 

Many of us have tried many ways, I am sure. This way works for me.

 

On a ford brake set up there should be a adjuster paw on the rear shoe that the spring hooks to then to the front shoe.
If you don't have that paw and are trying to stretch that spring from shoe to shoe good luck.

 

Used to be 'self-adjuster eliminator' kits with the correct spring to connect shoe-to-shoe over the star, for those who didn't trust self-adjusters to adjust evenly (or at all...)

All the '60s Fords I drove growing up had their self-adjusters tossed, my parents didn't trust them and on cars with drum front brakes I agree with that assessment.