I hate brakes!

Okay so I replaced the back shoes on my blazer because they were pretty worn, but it didn't seem to make any difference in my braking abilities. I have had to replace the front pads like 4 times in the past year. I bled the system properly I inspected all the lines from the master cylinder and nothing appears wrong. It seems like the back brakes don't do anything and it takes an act of god to stop my blazer. Am I missing something on these trucks? On my grand cherokee I replaced the back shoes and it stopped like a champ. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Chris Threlkeld.

Did you adjust the brakes back out to where they actually grab?  With drum brakes, there is an automatic adjuster that, if not functioning or not correctly adjusted when replacing the brake shoes may not provide braking power from those wheels out of adjustment or found with a non-functioning adjuster.  I adjust them through trial and error by basically adjusting a little, then seeing if I can put the drum back on.  I know I've gone too far when I cannot get the drum back over the shoes and adjust back to where the drum slides on with a bit of effort.  Then test with the back end off the ground and wheels installed.  Have someone push on the brakes while you try to turn the wheel.  If the wheels still turn, then something is wrong that needs to be addressed.

When you replaced the brake shoes, did you shrink the aduster back in?

That little adjuster was the first thing I tightened back up after getting the whole assymbley back together. It is almost identical to the adjuster on my grand when I did those rear brakes. I spread the shoes out to the point where it was mildly difficult to put the drum back on, but not impossible to pull it back off and went from there. I put the wheels back on and with the beast still in the air I put it in drive and the brakes grabbed the moving wheels rather fast with little force on the pedal. I didn't have anyone to grab the wheels as I was doing this solo unfortunately. It still feels like the truck is VERY heavy when I try to stop. I do live in a very hilly and steep area but I still don't think it stops right.

sounds like a brake proportioning valve might not be working correctly,, how hard is the brake pedal to push? the veh has antilock brakes??   My friend rec had a brake light problem on his 1991 chevy full size van he had to disconnect the antilock brake switch adjust the rear brakes, bled them and hooked everything back up it worked fine after that..  hope this helps sumhow...

Are you using a good quality rivetted brake shoe or lower quality bonded brake shoes?
Did you make sure that the park brake cable was adjusted slack before you adjusted the star wheel adjuster for the brake shoes.
 
If you're going through 4 sets of front brake pads a year, what kind of pads are they? High quality pads and rotor do make a difference.

This is a kind of out of the blue idea, but does your truck idle high due to a vacuum leak or anything? That would be like hitting the gas and the brake at the same time causing it to be harder to stop. *shurg* Figured I would just throw that out there.

88Jimmah -- Good idea but no I don't have an issue like that. The truck itself runs great.

Chevy Lover -- My uncle purchased a real nice set of Raybestos (spelling) shoes which he gave to me when I bought the truck from him. I just finally got around to putting them on. I did relieve the tension on the brake cable for the parking brake. I did adjust the start wheel spacer deal and made it so I could slip the drum on with a tiny bit of force. My front pads and rotor are fairly inexpensive, however not the cheapest item on the menu ya know.

2002X -- The brake pedal is hard but not incredibly soft. It almost feels normal however I just don't get the braking power like I thougth I would ya know. I almost feel as if the pedal should be a little stiffer. And yes mine has 4 wheel ABS.

You should check to see if the fronts are grabbing good, as well...

They do the most of the braking work... That could explain the softer braking feel...

Stainless steel braided brake lines are supposed to help pedal feel as well...

Yeah the front brakes grab fine. For all I know too well lol cause I keep burning through the front pads.

What kind of mileage do you do in a year?

Oh wow you don't even want to know. I bought the beast in January with 143k miles and now I have 160k on it. 17k miles in 10 months. I spend a lot of time in my truck it's my life. Probably 75% of that is around town with a good chunk of that in my mountain town. On my Saab the year before I got the Blazer I put 35k miles on that car.

Mountains mean hills, usually, that'll eat brakes a lot faster...
 
After driving around for a few days, how's the tension and feel on the back brakes if you try spinning the drums by hand, or removing them?

Yeah mountains suck. I burned through brakes on my Jeeps as well. I took the back wheels off again and the drums slipped off way easy. So I pushed the shoes together and then spread them out with the auto-adjust thing. It helped minorly but still doesn't feel 100%. So I will drive it a couple more days and check it again. Kind of frustrating I have never had good luck with those auto tensioners.

It could be the spring on the tensioners is worn out...

it has to be the spring on the tensioner because after a few days the drum came off really easily yea something is worn out there and i agree with drperry about the spring

You have to make sure that the adjuster is working properly and this doesn't just mean that when you turn the adjuster it tightens up the shoes in the drum.  You have to make sure that when the brakes are actuated normally that the adjuster arm is actually doing what it is supposed to with the adjuster.