hi ibraner- wow . just joined this new saturn forum. remember you from the old saturn fans forum. spent years on that before it went defunct. helped others and got help many times. been going down a dark desert highway these days with my 01 saturn L 100 sedan(rare as hell since it has 3 pedals on the floor). bought car new in late 2000 when the 2001s first came out. car has 216k miles now . only work on 4 cyl engine has been a new timing chain years ago which was rattling but didnt bust. just replaced clutch, cracked flywheel and and slave cylinder inside transaxle housing. cost a fortune. anyway, could enthrall you with more illustrious tales like eluding coppers late at night in the L100 on thunder road but wont do that. have one question for sage advisor like you. problem is with the rear drum brakes. the spring which holds together the bottom of the shoes against the stop seems too loose/ too long. what is the trick with it? also the self adjuster for these brake shoes wont stay in place. need your advice on that too. would love to have a detailed picture of the setup on the brake plate with the drum off. all i have is the chiltons repair book for this model and it is lousy for this repair. hope you can help me. thanks tons bob fisher call paladin@aol.com

 

Welcome to the forum, rfisher. Usual protocol is to introduce yourself, tell us about your car and yourself a little and then find the appropriate section to start asking questions about issues you're having. Fortunately, we're not sticklers on details, so I'll try to help with what little knowledge I have about cars. I don't know much about the L series but we have a guy here who knows a LOT. His name is Andy (02 LW200). I'm sure he'll probably be able to tell you whatever you need to check. My question about the self adjuster is to ask if you installed it in the correct direction. Maybe you accidentally installed is backwards and that could account for the slack in the spring? IDK, just asking. I've seen it happen when people will remove both sides and sets of brake shoes and get parts mixed up. When working on brake shoe and drum setups, I always do one side at a time. That way if I'm not sure about how something goes back together, I can pull the drum off the other side and use it as a reference. Sometimes there's a couple of different holes in the shoe and if you don't get the spring in the correct hole, they'll never be tight either.

 

charm manuals available online. Here is the relevant page for your L100: brake drum r/r

 

Welcome Bob, the charm manuals are copies of factory books. I think I have a drum brake rear suspension that I can take actual pictures of. I also can send you the parts if you can’t find them. We are still across the country from each other.
Andy

 

Just as I stated earlier in this thread...you have to rotate the spring so the torsion/twist applies pressure to the click wheel adjuster bar. It's obvios once you twist and reconnect it as it holds pressure on the adjuster bar. Again, the first time I worked on them I had to take tem both apart as it did not keep the adjuster in place.

 

hi andy- could really use your help. just joined this new forum. need a good picture of the properly assembled rear drumbrake setup . think my self adjuster is incorrectly set up. told you are a sage on this matter. remember you in the old saturn fans forum. was a member there for many years. could you talk me through reassembly. cant see how you position the adjuster once the shoes are attached to the back plate. seems the adjuster lever needs to be tightly held against the adjuster wheel. also the bottom spring which holds the shoe bottoms against the stop is not holding tightly. . does the charm manual have a correct picture of this? thanks tons bob fisher(new member)

 

I will see if I can get some good pictures tomorrow.

 

thank you andy. will look forward to those pictures. do you hold the spring (that connects the lever advancing the adjuster wheel ) with a needle nose pliers, twist it and insert the hook into the slot on the advancer so that the pressure it would exert holds it to the teeth on the wheel? seems awkward. thanks tons. bob fisher

 

This is a passenger side. I removed the wheel bearing/hub assembly for a better view. Drum brakes are much easier to work on without the bearing in the way. There are four 16mm nuts behind the backing plate buried in the suspension. If removed I would put at least 2 temporary bolts and nuts to hold the backing plate to the suspension.

 

This is going to be several posts due to the number of pictures. I took this apart to determine the best way. I found this to be the easiest order of disassembly, I would reverse the order to assemble this brake.

Remove this spring from the shoe then the adjuster.




It should look like this now




Next grab the rod like this and squeeze, it will only move a small amount. There are two pictures following.





The tip of the little link needs to come out of the hole. Then it will look like this.





Next remove the main top spring by slipping it off the link rod. It will slip off when pulled up off the 90 degree bend.