I've never seen vent drums before...

So there are actually different sized rear shoes? It looks like if the shoe was a couple of mm thicker, all would be fine...

Yeah I had lots of problems with mine, it is an 8V Spanish model built in 2000. The books in the local parts places only list 8V up to 1994 and 16V 1994 on. The Spanish never released any service info for mine. After half a dozen goes at getting the right parts my local Suzuki dealer dug out a faded microfiche and got an old part number that the computer couldn't find. If I needed rear brake stuff after that I just asked for shoes for a 1994 Vit with 228mm drums. I don't know about the LWB shoes, I think Wild said they were wider.

wow this is strange I had brake problems too. But the opposite. my brakes where hard as a rock to the point that the calipers where dragging on the front discs. It got so bad that after applying the brakes over a couple of miles of traffic they would be locked up and smoking. (great for doing burnouts by the way!) Geo's will smoke the shit out of the rear tires! If I let the trucklet sit for about an hour it would drive fine until I used the brakes a couple times. So I replaced everything except drums and rotors they where in spec. No luck. when I bleed the system the rear brakes where basically dry, no oil would come out. so I replaced the master cyclinder. No luck. So called Hawk Strictly Suzuki and got an entire new assebly from the master cylinder out to where the 3 brake lines connect lines. Problem solved.. My guess is it was the proportioning valve. I ripped that apart out of curiosity and everything looked fine.. needless to say I replaced all the wrong items prior to finding the problem.

good luck.

Well, here's the run-down:

I bought the Tracker from BionicOnion and the e-brake wouldn't hold the truck and he said the rears might need shoes. The pedal was very soft. I replaced the rear shoes and adjusted the ebrake cable, but the pedal was still very soft, so I bled the brakes(when I replaced the shoes, I noticed that they didn't look that worn). This made it better, but not completely fixed. I know the calipers and wheel cylinders are working freely without binding and I cleaned and lubed the rear adjuster mechanism. I can't get the rear shoes to adjust out far enough to drag on the drum, even at full travel of the adjuster.

I figured that maybe the drums were worn to the point of being too large, so I picked up a used set off a low-mileage tracker in the salvage yard. This did nothing as the drums were the same as the original ones. After a recent trail ride, the pedal became noticable softer again. I pulled the drums and everything looked fine; plenty of shoe material left, cylinders and adjusters still moving freely, etc. So I bled the brakes again and this time I got black fluid out of the rear. I flushed it out with fresh clear brake fluid until it ran clear(total amount of black was about 2" in a 20 oz soda bottle).

Now the pedal feels like it did before, it works, but is still a little too soft for my liking. I'm not losing fluid and the lines look fine. I was starting to suspect the anti-lock mechanism, but that wouldn't account for not being able to adjust the shoes out enough to drag the drum... I found the ebrake cable might be bad on the pass side because the yoke that splits the one cable into two is canted sideways like there is no tension on the pass side, could this be causing a problem? I'm at a loss here...

IMO ... trac/kicks just have a soft brake pedal. I don't like it either and am going to do a fuid flush and try to adjust it to be firm, but ...

I found the ebrake cable might be bad on the pass side because the yoke that splits the one cable into two is canted sideways like there is no tension on the pass side, could this be causing a problem? I'm at a loss here...

Have you tried adjusting the cables so the yoke is level? If it won't adjust up then you could have a seized or broken cable.

Hey Digger
    The guys have all given you great advice and I'll give you a little more FWIW

- If you pull up the hand brake does it work?
- If it does and you pull it up till it just adds resistance
 to your driving away does the pedal get harder?

-If it does then you've got an adjustment problem or
 wrong/damaged parts
-If it doesn't then you likely have a hydralic problem
(booster/master, lines etc.)

- Are you loosing brake fluid?

-If you are not loosing brake fluid and the rest of the
system checks out you might have one of those rare
instances were you need to have the system pressure
bled due to an airlock or pocket. It's uncommon but I
have seen it 3-4 times over the years.

Hope that helps

Zag

As far as the E-brake goes, I'm still running
the stock 2 door rears, and they are 89' parts
all stock, never been changed, and I can park
on any hill and the E-brake will hold, unless the
tires start to slip down, but that isn't the Brakes

Good points Zaggy, I forgot about the E-brake
test, I noticed this on my trucklet before I fixed
the brakes

One more thing, and I'm going to accuse you of
bone-heading the rear brake rebuild/reline, but did
you put the adjuster into the right spot ??

If, and I can't remember because it's been years
since I've had to do anything with my rear brakes,
but if there is more than one place to put the adjusters
in, are they installed too high? and are they in the right
way, if they are installed the wrong way they won't
adjust and might even un-adjust the rear brakes

I'm just throwing out some ideas, I've seen some real
strange stuff done when it comes to brakes, and I don't
put anything past a home brake job, things just get put
together wrong, unintended, but they do.

Take a closeup pic and post it, we might see somthing
that you don't

Wild

Pulling the ebrake seems to do nothing, no resistance and wont slow the car down when moving. I'll grab a pic in the next couple days, when I'm not working...