so being christmas eve and all the brakes had to go in my girlfriends parents van... looks like the passenger rear brake cylinder is leaking BAD but I cant for the life of me figure out how to loosen the brakes to get the drum off, I can get them tighter but thats not much help... anyone ever work on one of these before? where the hell in that little hole is the release lever so I can loosen these things, i've been lying in the rain trying to figure this out for about 20 mins now and I am getting annoyed. It has to be fixed cause theres no way 6 people are fitting in to my sprint to go to christmas dinner.
its an 1993 dodge caravan btw
Well having worked on these vans several times at work and having to pull the rear drums for inspections i can tell you that the adjuster is at the top of the backing plate and the e-brake cable goes through behind the adjuster so you have to move it out of the way either up or down what i usually do is take a metal coat hanger and cut it so one end is hooked and the other end is about 5 or 6 inches long. then you have to turn it sideways and stick the hooked end through the slot and under the e-brake cable cover by a spring then twist the hanger so the hook is vertical and push the metal arm in front of the adjuster out so you can adjust them down. I really hate the caravans and voyagers because they almost always have a lip on the drums and are a pain to get off. Well I hope this helps
thanks but the only plug I can fing is on the bottom and is only 1/4" tall and only about 2" wide. The e-brake cable goes in to the back oif the drum between the top and bottom of the backing plate. It has the 16" wheels and is a touring edition or something.. any ideas?
it has a lock arm on the rear side that you can push back with a small screw driver the you can rotate the adjuster the oppisite way.
it is very likley you will need new brake shoes also. due to fluid cotamination.