rear brake adjustment with locking differential locker

[scubaasteve]

The M37 vehicle I purchased has auto positive-locking differential from PowerTrax of CA. installed. It may not matter but the transmission, bellhousing, and plant were from a gamma goat.

To adjust the brakes I need to be able to rotate the drum from top to bottom of each shoe. The vehicle is off the ground in the rear.

Out of gear I"m only able to rotate the wheels (drum) a bit...well the powertrax manual indicates there should be of 25 degrees of free play by design of the locker. that does seem about right.

--also occassionaly, at random, in playig with it, the drums will rotate further than the 25 degrees, but I can't reproduce it consistently.

Anyhow, all I know to do is either 1)start the truck and put in gear trying randomly to position the drums where I need them , 2) disengate each axel shaft (hate to undo my recent gasketing of each).

Comment?

[DrPepper]

You really don't need to rotate the wheel all the way..

If you can move the wheel a bit that is enough to know the shoes haven't locked yet, once they lock the drum then you back off 3 - 4 (or what works) clicks until the wheel is free to move the little bit and you are good to go.
If both wheels are up in the air, step on the brake to center the shoes and run the engine in 1st gear and listen if there is any heavy rubbing. Should be pretty quiet with maybe a bit of a minor contact only. Good to go.

[Gordon Maney]

The worst that should happen is that you turn the drum on one side and the other side turns also. Over the years I have adjusted many brakes on positraction, limited slip, whatever you want to call them, rear axles.

You contaminate the situation with the added drag from the other side, but you do the best you can. Don't rely on an amount of free play suggested by the literature. Work with it using full rotation. Make sure you have the transmission in neutral.