This car man!  Anyway,  so I fitted some (blasted ebay factors) brake shoes around 10,000 miles back and had a occasional stick, if she sat for a few days on the handbrake.  Usually she'd crack off when lifting the clutch in 1st but this morning, rear left suspension dips and I drag car along.  Eventually freed with a almighty bang then it was like the wheel then rotated a half turn and bang, locked on again.  Tried reversing, wouldn't come off.  Eventually just dragged it forward and it released.

I have now noticed that my handbrake travel is 7 clicks instead of 3 clicks what I set it at when new shoes were fitted, the day before I MOTd her in March.

Also feels like foot pedal travel is a bit more now but none of the rear wheels are binding as I just backfrom a 45 mile round trip and the cool as cucumber.  Any ideas or am I going to have to strip it down?  Also feels like it's only biting on the offside when I apply 5 clicks running along a back road at 30mph?

46 minutes ago, Bar72 said:

 

The Mk2.5 Focus is notorious for sticking Rear Drums, even with OE Shoes and I don't think there is a permanent cure.

You need to strip both sides down again and check everything, it is easy to assemble them wrong or put the Adjuster the wrong way round and make sure the Handbrake cable is not seized.

A crude test before you do this is the jack up both sides and feel if you can turn each wheel with the Handbrake pulled up a little at a time and with someone pressing the Brake Pedal lightly.

The only other tip I would give you is that it takes forever for the Self Adjusters to wind themselves to the correct position once disturbed, one of your ones may not be al the way there yet and if the Handbrake Cable is too tight then the Self Adjusters will not self adjust properly.

The correct way to do things is to loosen off the Handbrake Cable, then adjust the Self Adjusters, then tighten the Handbrake Cable to the requisite amount.

 

Ok, nice one Tizer.  I did have handbrake cable wound right off the nut at the handbrake between the seats when I fitted the new shoes.  I then reset adjusters and greased the threads with the lightest smear of grease before fitting to the shoes.  After fitting drums, I pressed pedal 5 times and I could hear the adjusters nipping up.  Then I adjusted cable with the nut between the front seats so it was biting at 3-4 clicks but that was 10,000 miles back for the MOT.  Handbrake been fine and balanced on both sides until this morning.

However, as I suspected, I'll whip the drums off and check nothing major has gone wrong.  Many thanks for the reply.

2 minutes ago, Bar72 said:

Ok, nice one Tizer.  I did have handbrake cable wound right off the nut at the handbrake between the seats when I fitted the new shoes.  I then reset adjusters and greased the threads with the lightest smear of grease before fitting to the shoes.  After fitting drums, I pressed pedal 5 times and I could hear the adjusters nipping up.  Then I adjusted cable with the nut between the front seats so it was biting at 3-4 clcciks but that was 10,000 miles back for the MOT.  Handbrake been fine and balanced on both sides until this morning.

However, as I suspected, I'll whip the drums off and check nothing major has gone wrong.  Many thanks for the reply.

Pressing the Brake Pedal 5 times does not seem enough to wind the Adjusters right up unless they were almost there before you did it. Subject to a visual inspection I would be tempted to slacken off the Handbrake Cable again and see if the Adjusters will adjust a bit more before tightening the Cable again.

Appreciated.  I shall follow what you're saying and back off cable then have a look behind the drum.  Possibly the cable has also seized now due to me ragging it up and down.  I'll update when I've had a look.  thanks again. Bar

The problem of the sticking drum brakes is often caused by a very slightly distorted brake backing plate. The thickness of the backing plate is quite poor and can easily be bent when fitting new shoes. If this is the cause and it can be difficult to see the damage, you need to replace the brake backing plate which is a bit of a pain to do.

I absolutely hate drum brakes on old cars.  Had a major 'breakdown' when the shoe lining ripped off on a cold, wet morning, then slipped under the other shoe and locked the drum solid a few miles later.  Right on a 60mph blind bend as well.  Told recovery what had happened and they didn't believe me, just sent a tiny van with a guy that asked 'have you tried to free it by reversing'.    Then another guy came with a beavertail, again completely useless for a locked rear wheel!  Eventually after several hours they sent a proper truck to lift the whole car, and broke my front splitter in the process.  Was a massive pain getting the drum off once it was home.

Moral of the story?  Never trust a breakdown service...   And also don't ignore a sticking shoe!

@TomsFocus  this is what happened with mine then.  I removed drum this morning, which came off easily enough, to discover the lining completely seperated from the shoe.  Did a 45 mile round trip with it like that yesterday.  I actually remembered reading an earlier post of yours about the lining seperating when I was on dual carraigeway at around 75mph and though, "maybe I should lift off a bit, just in case the wheel locks".

Anyways, so I went to my local factors this morning and broke a tear or 2 at £50 for Juratek Shoes and fitting kit which are now on the car.  I'm waiting on a new self adjuster coming as the self adjuster is also destroyed (possibly the lining travelled around the drum, bent the brass spring clip on the adjuster then shot back around to where it's sitting in the below picture) when I reversed the car, trying to free it yesterday morning.

Don't think I'll bother using the handbrake when parking as it's on level ground outside the house and I'd rather not have to deal with a similar situation in future.

 

22 hours ago, Tizer said:

The Mk2.5 Focus is notorious for sticking Rear Drums, even with OE Shoes and I don't think there is a permanent cure.

Is this only for the Mk2.5? What did they change from the Mk2 pre-facelift?

My Mk2 pre-facelift has rear drums.

I am surprised rear drums haven't died out by now. Some low spec small cars still have them from new even today.

 

1 hour ago, AntonovAN12 said:

Is this only for the Mk2.5? What did they change from the Mk2 pre-facelift?

My Mk2 pre-facelift has rear drums.

I am surprised rear drums haven't died out by now. Some low spec small cars still have them from new even today.

 

I don't know if the Mk2 were different or not but I'm sure all the Mk2.5's were the same from new.

An ex Mrs Tizer had a Volvo V50 from new, the V50 was a rebadged Focus Mk2.5 and actually came out a bit before the Mk2.5 and that suffered from the same problem of sticking Rear Shoes, especially if it had rained the night before. Also my Mk2.5 had the original Shoes and that was the same.

It must be a design fault because my current car is the first one that I have had that has Rear Discs and it is only my old Mk2.5 that gave me problems, the rest of them have worked perfectly and from a personal point of view I prefer Drum Brakes.

19 hours ago, Bar72 said:

Don't think I'll bother using the handbrake when parking as it's on level ground outside the house and I'd rather not have to deal with a similar situation in future

I think you're more likely to have problems with parts of it seizing up if you don't use it regularly. I've always used the handbrake when stationary rather than holding the car with the footbrake (that's how I was taught almost 60 years ago) so it gets regular and fairly frequent use. Although I have had drums stick slightly after being parked overnight in damp weather they've always freed off instantly as soon as I move.

Like Tizer I think drums do have advantages over discs for the rear brakes, Rears don't contribute much to braking so discs tend to get pretty corroded. I find the handbrake more effective with drums, useful if you need to use it to stop in an emergency, e.g. if there's a problem with the braking system. That's also why I prefer a purely mechanical parking brake.

@mjt  yes, I do like having the handbrake working just in case main braking system ever fails (fluid leak, etc), I'll just use it when at the shops etc.  I more meant when I park it for a few days at a time outside the house, I won't use it.  However, some unknown manufacturer of the failed shoes may have been the problem with them sticking so often.  I'm going to start using local factors and stay clear of ebay for car parts from now on.  Too many dodgy parts online nowadays.