Hey Bustedratchet - thanks again for the interest/replies. Yes this brake setup is goofy as I said earlier. Maybe the engineers thought it would be funny but I'm not laughing. I'll try my best to describe the setup for you. First let me say that I've been in the automotive field for 25 years (mostly foreign cars) and have worked on many different types of brake setups/configurations (both foreign and domestic). This is the first one I've seen that looks exactly like this. I know, I know - what took me so long? The forward brake shoe is held in place in the usual manner as is the rear brake shoe, ie: Hold down spring, pin and retainer in the center of each shoe (think 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock). Below the wheel hub is a rather large anchor plate/pivot point for the shoes to rest against. The shoes are connected by a lower return spring which stretches below and around the anchor pivot (and behind the plate). This is the 6 o'clock position. There is no adjuster in this location! The leading brake shoe on each assembly has a spring connecting link which is placed in two holes - one hole at 10 o'clock and the other at 11 o'clock. The link anchors the left side of the upper return spring (the spring goes over a little crook in the link half way between 10 and 11). The upper return spring lives just under the wheel cylinder (12 o'clock) and runs horizontially to the parking brake lever/trailing shoe and mounts in a hole that's just below the parking brake lever anchor pin half way between 1 and 2 o'clock. The adjuster mechanism lives just below and rearward of the upper return spring (above the hub) - touching 10 and 2. The adjuster actuator lever is mounted on a pivot which shares the 10 o'clock position with the connecting link. The spring for the actuator lever goes through a hole in the lever down to the left and through a hole in the leading brake shoe at about the 8 o'clock position. Clear as mud, huh? So to recap - five springs total - top return, bottom return, two hold down, and one actuator lever spring. Only the top return springs have been giving me fits. I've reassmbled the car for the sixth time and so far, so good. I replaced the springs with new ones (again) thinking perhaps I got weak springs. Seems to have helped in the short run. Time will tell.
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