Technical Metal plug where brake self adjuster is supposed to be

Working on the rear brakes in the Mercury Montclair and it looks like the hole in the backing plate to adjust the brakes needs to be knocked out,in all the years working on cars this is the first time I have ever seen this and was this normal in the mid 60s. The metal clips that held the drums on while going down the line were still on so I could be the first one to be into the brakes.

 

Not the self adjuster but where to manually adjust the brakes.

 

That was pretty typical on '60s Ford products after they went to self-adjusting brakes. They usually got knocked out at the first brake job, but not always. Don't know about other brands. Must have saved them .10 per car...

 

as steve said they can be a bitch to punch out at times

 

You have to knock those plugs out to back off the shoes when the original owner ran them into metal & the drum was ruined ... usually the adjuster was frozen, too.

 

Seems to me that, yes you just might be the first one in the brakes since new. How many miles show on the car?

 

Not the first one in in my estimation. More than likely previous owner(s) never buggered up th easy stem by neglect.

 

GM did it too. I have a late '60s Nova rear brake and the knock out for the adjuster was on the face of the drum.

 

I probably knocked out a couple of hundred of those in the 70's when I was doing brake jobs at the Firestone tire store in Waco. I cheated an used my air chisel but you can get them with a hammer and punch or chisel.
302GMC is spot on as he usually is, You have to knock them out to be able to back the shoes off on rigs that they ate into the drums on. A piece of 1/8 welding rod bent just right or a skinny screw driver to push the self adjuster out of the way and a brake spoon to back it off.

 

I forgot about the knockouts in the face of the drums.