Naturally you will want to take everything apart and inspect using the service manual you can verify that everything is still there and installed properly, you will also want to remove the adjusters so you can clean and lubricate the threads, most adjusters that I have seen needed cleaned and lubricated I have even found some that were rusted. If the the brake system on your machine was never maintained you might even have rusted wheel cylinders, I bleed the brakes on my machines at least once a year, brake fluid is dehydrated and is always looking for moisture the brake system has a vented cap and moisture collects in the system and will form droplets of water through out the entire system, changing the fluid will eliminate most of the moisture and reduce the chances of internal corrosion problems. Removing the drums, a screwdriver works great to back off the adjusters (2 adjusters, one for the front shoe and one for the back) if the drum has a lot of wear or rust build up around the outside edge of the drum you will have to back the adjusters back quite a ways before it will come off, once you get the drums off you should wash them with soap and water to clean them up then you might want to sand the rust off the outside edge, do the verification and inspection of all the brake components to make sure everything is intact and working properly, inspect brake pad thickness and clean everything up. If your drums are worn real bad you might need to "arc the brake shoes" so more of the shoe surface makes contact with the drum (better braking) to do this you need to assemble everything and adjust the brakes so you cant turn them by hand, always make brake adjustments with the tire and rim installed and the lug nuts tighten to the proper torque value if you over torque them you will distort the drum, If you just grab the impact gun and rattle the lug nuts tight expect your front brakes to not work right, if you torque your lug nuts, adjust your brakes and get them working right then a month from now attack your lug nuts with a impact gun and not use a torque wrench don't blame Honda for a poor design! "Asbestos warning, even some new brake shoes and pads are make of asbestos and dust control should be considered especially if you are "sanding" the shoes." By Wcote01 Once you have them adjusted tight roll the Odyssey/Pilot around with the brakes rubbing, remove the drum and see where the brake shoe was making contact and sand that area down (remove the high spots) with sand paper, install and adjust the shoes tight again, repeat this until you get good contact between the brake shoe and the drum. When your all done and making your final adjustment you want the front brake shoe tighter than the (making more contact, tighter) rear shoe and it will be hard to turn the tire by hand. You can skip the part of arcing the brake shoes but you will have to adjust your brakes about every time you ride until the high spots are worn off shoes and you get proper brake shoe to drum contact. You can speed up the break in process when you adjust the brakes properly (with the tire and rim on) it will be hard to turn the tires if you then removed the tires you would not be able to turn the drum by hand, you want them that tight for the first ride, for the first few miles, then adjust from there after, they need a chance to wear in or wear off the high spots so the brake material matches the drum, the only way to get pad to drum contact is to match them up with wear, kinda like breaking in a engine, parts have to match each other, so adjust them tight, take it for about a mile long ride using the front brakes by making a munch of stops, don't just lock it up apply the brakes slowly so they have time to wear in, then stop and adjust them again if they need it, ride for another mile or so and stop to see if the drums are warm if they are the shoe is dragging too hard causing them to heat up, adjust each shoe tighter one click to see what shoe is too tight, then back off the proper adjuster, the front or leading shoe should be adjusted tighter than the trailing shoe... I have seen in a few instances where properly adjusted brake shoes will lock up when riding at the dunes, what happens is sand will get between the shoe and drum (imagine that) creating enough heat to completely lock up the front brakes so you might want to back off the adjusters a few clicks before running in fine sand like Little Sahara, Silver Lake and Glamis has, back them off enough so you still have braking (where you have to pull the brake lever about 1/2 way in before you get braking) in the sand you don't need as much braking and they will usually just lock up anyway. Also check out the Rear Brake Care and pad replacement, a special thanks goes out to MGR who contributed a bunch of info here from his experiences with the 350 brakes
