My brakes keep going very hard and then very soft, i replaced the brake shoes about 7 weeks ago. I removed the offside shoes yesterday to see if the handbrake lever was moving freely as both were seized solid when i originally did the shoes. the handbrake lever moves but i noticed that the self adjuster arm isnt coming into contact with the fixed serated wheel and i can move it from left to right within the hole it sits in, the spring underneath is in position.

im gonna remove both rear shoes on sunday and start again from scratch to see if that helps the problem. Im confident my servos ok as the brake pedal drops slightly on staring the engine but then the pedal becomes very tight.

any ideas anyone?

I'm guessing you're talking about a 360. Its can be tricky to get the adjuster arm/lever in the right place, its not that well designed and corrosion/wear and previous seizures can take their toll. Having said that usually it just a case of fiddling with it until it is contacting the adjusting gear. It can get stuck between the fork and shoe where the gap seems to get bigger with age, making the other end stick out away from the ratchet. There is an indent on the arm to stop this happening but its not 100% effective.

http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... =5&t=12730

See my last post, I had exactly the same problem.

No, I have a Volvo 340DL 1988 1.4

I stripped both sides again yesterday and the offside self adjuster is still not coming into contact with the fixed wheel. the small spring between the fixed wheel and adjuster arm is very loose and easily drops away when removing the brake shoes. Im guessing thats why the self adjuster isnt snapping back against the fixed wheel? I removed the spring and closed the hole on it much smaller using pliers but my brakes are still ging from hard to soft to hard etc. Im gonna see if my local volvo dealer can get me a new spring or failing that get the whole system with spring intact from another car...

Ebay had a few drum service kits a few months ago, not sure if they are still there. Springs, pivot pins etc included.

I managed to get an entire o/s self-adjuster mechanism yesterday at a scrappy. The small spring on the self-adjuster mechanism I got is the opposite way round to my current o/s springs positioning. I turned my current spring around this morning so that the coil section is nearest the fixed wheel (LIKE THE ONE FROM THE SCRAPPY) and my brakes seem to be working normally now. I also checked my nearside spring and it's also positioned with the coil section closest to the fixed wheel which to me suggests that thats its correct positioning and why my brakes werent working properly?