Weird drum brake problem on a Mazda 626

Sorry for no pictures, I did not have the presence of mind to take any pics last night while working on this.

Had to replace a wheel cylinder on my 1989 Mazda 626 one weekend project (that has now spanned about a month), and ran into a very strange issue.  I could not reinstall the brake drum afterwards.  It's not like normal drum brakes, in that the drum actually holds the wheel bearing (which I trashed and have a new one on order), and there does not seem to be any manual adjuster.  The drum will literally not fit over the shoes, even though they are both fairly worn.  I tried finesse, and eventually brute force, which is what did in the wheel bearing.  It appears the shoes are pressed as far into the spreader bar as possible.  I can retract the wheel cylinder enough that it is not what is pushing the shoes outward.  No matter how I adjusted the shoes, at least one of them would be far enough out to prevent the drum from sliding on.

I could not find any online instructions for a 626 this old, as it appears the 93-up models have a more conventional setup.  Somewhere I saw it said that there was no adjustment, but that can't be right, as the shoes and the drum are both fairly worn, so there has to be a way to bring the shoes more inward when they get replaced.  I looked at the ebrake cable mount on the backing plate very quickly last night, and did not see anything that looked like an obvious adjuster, but I was tired and frustrated, so could have easily missed something.   Anyone  have any ideas? 

On my 1982 Mazda GLC the adjustment was built into the "spreader bar". That was a linkage thing that sat right below the brake cylinder. There's a knurled knob sitting against a movable quadrant that had to be reset when I put on new shoes.

A picture of your setup would help.

There should be a adjuster just under the cylinder, its a flat piece that goes in between the shoes. It should be split with 2 gear like ends connected, stick a flat head in there, pry them open, and turn the gears. that should let the shoes retract more.

In reply to Indecisiverock :

That's almost what my GLC had, just had a knob to push down and release the pressure so you could push the quandrant back.

I’ll take a look next time I’m at the workshop, thank you.  And if it isn’t like the diagram, I’ll make sure to get some pictures.

In reply to eastsideTim :

I'll see if I can grab a couple pictures either tonight or tomorrow for you

Those weird little adjusters can be a bear to shorten up and stay short. Use one hand to wedge the serrated pieces apart with a small screwdriver, then push the wheel cylinder and shoes towards each other with you second and third hands, then pull the screwdriver out and use hands one and four to install the drum.

I stopped in after dropping the kids off at school this morning and got some pictures for you:

In reply to wae :

Thanks!

That's what it is--You are at full expansion on the knurl. 

Left side of the top picture- See the serrated portion of the spreader bar?  It needs to be pried apart a bit with a flat screwdriver to allow it to fold back together. There could be enough spring pressure to pull it back, but it might need a bit of help, since it has to push the brake fluid out of the wheel cylinder back up the line.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I think I see what you are talking about.  I had assumed the spreader bar was one piece.