My first car was a 75VW with 4 wheel manually adjusted drums. When I was learning to work on that car, an old mechanic taught me how to adjust drums much the way Ron described. In my case I would adjust until it started to scrape. Then hit brakes hard a couple times. Spin and adjust some more. Hit brakes hard. Then adjust until it locked the wheel up tight, then back off until it just scraped a little. Hit brakes hard and check. Adjust again if required. I have had success with this method on multiple drum vehicles and my trailer which will lock all 4 if I slam the manual activation lever. Drums are a lot more work than disks, and adjusting them properly is becoming a lost art. I feel many of the complaints regarding drums is them being adjusted. Notice what most all big rigs have on the drives and trailers?
