Drum brake star adjuster tool

I'm fed up of fiddling around trying (and failing) to use a screwdriver to move the star adjusters when setting my drum brake shoes. Every time I adjust them I vow to buy a proper tool, and whilst I'm still feeling the pain of doing them last week, I'm keen to find a suitable tool. However, a quick look on eBay doesn't reveal many options - does anyone have a gadget they use to make life any easier?


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I have a set of these pry bars and the small one makes it a little easier than a screwdriver:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-35396-Piece-Pry-Bar/dp/B0001K9TD8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499977771&sr=8-1&keywords=draper+pry+bar

This got me thinking that VW themselves would have come up with the optimal solution, back in the day, for their own workshops. A look at my official VW workshop manual covering brakes shows that the recommended tool was a Hazet one, # 2582.
The good news is that this is still available:
https://www.hazet.de/produktkatalog/product_info.php?products_id=896017027

Brilliant Ed, I reckon we`ll wear your brains out first because mine don`t seem to be functioning too much any :mrgreen: more.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,Why didn`t I think of that.

Brill but they must be free cos I'm strained if I can see on there site how much they cost ?? Ha ha

Not too dissimilar to a pry bar then

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this is what I bought :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-Hydraulic-Brake-Braking-System-Drum-Shoe-Adjuster-Tool-VS0355/301553215213?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Small prybar every time and my backplate access holes are huge after someone tried to force the seized adjusters and deformed them. Might be worth removing the adjusters and cleaning them up or replacing them. Put a little coppaslip on the threads and the barrels on reassembly and they should turn fairly easy and not seize again..

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I keep a spare star adjuster in tool box, so when adjusting can hold it up to wheel to check I am turning the bus's adjusters the way I intend to.

Maybe it's just me being thick, I lose my sense of direction when lying under bus and trying to relate moving star "up" with clockwise/counterclockwise, then clockwise/counterclockwise with opening or closing drums - which varies from wheel to wheel and adjuster to adjuster.

Thanks for the input guys. Seems there's various options that work well for others, and maybe the key is to get something with a bit of a kink in it for some additional leverage. Interestingly, I've always adjusted from the hole in the drum rather than the backing plate, so maybe this is why I struggle - can't get as much leverage as if going in from the back. Not that I've tried it, but I was always worried about bending the backing plate which aren't the easiest to get hold of.


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Moseley said:

Thanks for the input guys. Seems there's various options that work well for others, and maybe the key is to get something with a bit of a kink in it for some additional leverage. Interestingly, I've always adjusted from the hole in the drum rather than the backing plate, so maybe this is why I struggle - can't get as much leverage as if going in from the back. Not that I've tried it, but I was always worried about bending the backing plate which aren't the easiest to get hold of.


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Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,Exactly my friend :mrgreen:

I use a SnapOn flat head screw driver, Number 3 size I think, always have done, find something that works for you and stick with it I guess
I do like the look of the Hazet adjuster tool though


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I just found a twelve inch tyre lever in a box of ''' special tools''' in my garage :shock: . That box gets rummaged once a week for ideas but usually gets put back under the bench :lol: . This tyre lever has not been used since I had a home made mini bike with wheelbarrow wheels and tyres when I was fourteen . Now that I'm a grain over sixty I don't think I'll use it as a tyre lever for a wheelbarrow or a motor bike or a car ever again. If I reduce it by an eighth of an inch each side (see !! OLD) then that should be about perfect :shock: .This new tool can then come out of the relegated box and live in the good toolbox along with all the other tools that I may use somewhere between now and eternity :roll: Them back drums got to make an appearance on the clean up bench soon too. Best get that mahoosive one inch socket set out from under the bench

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, get the biggies out :mrgreen:

slow-lane-Matt said:

I keep a spare star adjuster in tool box, so when adjusting can hold it up to wheel to check I am turning the bus's adjusters the way I intend to.

Maybe it's just me being thick, I lose my sense of direction when lying under bus and trying to relate moving star "up" with clockwise/counterclockwise, then clockwise/counterclockwise with opening or closing drums - which varies from wheel to wheel and adjuster to adjuster.

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Not just you, I can never remember.

Ok, so I went and bought the ridiculously overpriced adjuster, just to be like the VW men of yesteryear... and what a beast it is!




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That looks ace. Now I`ve seen it I might have to as well, after all I must need one about five or ten times every day so it`ll pay fior itself in next to no time won`t it :lol:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, Twice a year but only because I got it , if I get it, will I ? won`t I ? :mrgreen:

A decent screwdriver is more than ample. Strip the adjuster down, clean it with a wire brush, clean the threads out and reassemble with an antiseize compound such as copper grease and it will be a simple task.

Karlos, Karlos ,Karlos, Now where the hell is the fun in that ????,,, it`s tools bud ,there don`t have to be a right and a wrong.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Just buy some noooooo ones :lol: 8) :lol:

Not everyone wants to strip the entire mechanism down every time they want to adjust their brakes though!


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Moseley said:

Not everyone wants to strip the entire mechanism down every time they want to adjust their brakes though!


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You don't have too if you do it properly. I've done it 2-3 times in the 10 years I've had my bus. It's general maintance to keep brake adjusters free... or you can leave it to start to seize (which I reckon yours are starting to do if they are that stiff) jam your glorified screwdriver in there and ring it off....