I think you may see it look at:
http://www.billhughes.com/44axlebearing.jpg Imagine the the shoes
expanding away from the cylinder, driving forward the rear piston is
mostly for looks as the the whole shoe assembly rotate against the top
anchor, but in reverse it rotates the other way, (clockwise in this
picture of a left side) and the rear shoe pulls away from the top anchor
that the adjusting cable is hook to, pulling the adjusting lever up at
the end of that shoe and cocking it, so that when the cable is released
the return spring will pull the lever back into the rest position
turning it one notch. It would take hundreds of stops in reverse to
adjust shoes not pre adjusted on installation.
God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O
http://www.billhughes.com/44axlebearing.jpg

SteveBrady wrote:
>
> I just had the jeep in for regular maintenance and the guy told me I needed
> my rear brakes to be adjusted.
> And I brought up the 'automatic adjustment' thing and he said that's an old
> wives tale brought in, probably, from some import car design that didn't
> catch on.
>
> I've had the rears apart (different vehicle) and do see the adjusting 'star'
> but don't see how it would auto adjust with the whole brake on reverse
> thing. Was he feeding me a line to get more business out of me?