I have a 2000 Cavalier, next to no options as it was a former fleet car. I just replaced the rear shoes, drums, and hardware. Before using 3 nuts to hold the drums in place, the drums would rotate freely. After I put the nuts on to hold it in place, it seemed like they adjusted themselves, having quite a bit of drag without even touching the adjusters. Now, every time I press on the brakes the rear of the car literally sags down, and stays down if I come to a complete stop, popping back up after I release the brakes. With the wheels on and tightened down, there is a normal amount of drag. This isn't my first time replacing rear brakes, but this is the first time I've run into this problem. Has anyone ever had this happen to them before? Can anyone give me an idea what is causing this?
I'm not much help for a suggestion of what to do about it, but I have observed that my car does that if the hand brake (rears alone) are used to stop the car. It sounds like your rears are engaging earlier or stronger than they should, relative to the fronts.
Shop Manuals, Brochures:
www.kenmcgeeautobooks.com
Did you bleed (if a wheel cylinder was changed) everything properly? Are you sure the front brakes work well? Front could have air in them, and only the rear could be working properly (if someone else did the brakes at one point). Check the master cylinder? Porportioning valve? I'd bleed everything all the way around to start, and see what that does for you.
There will always be someone faster than you, but thousands slower and dumber than you.
check the fronts, sliders and all.
sounds lke the fronts are bad
Ive owned 3 j's and all of them have done this. I never messed with the brakes (rear). I notice it more when its damp/humid outside though . I once took the drum off and sprayed everything down with brake cleaner (get all the dust out) and it seemed to help.
I did notice other posts dealing with similar, and the original poster said that replacing the shoes eventually cleared up his problem. I'm doing that tomorrow, but I think I'll pick up the fronts as well (just in case) and bleed the system. I did try cleaning all the brakes, which made it marginally better, but only for a few hours. By the time I got done picking the my daughters up from school, they were right back to "normal". Thanks for the ideas, guys. Hopefully, this will all go away, otherwise I will have to read up on the neon brake swap and just get rid of the drums.
