Cansler

I popped off my brake drum to discover the source of a metal-on-metal scraping sound to find that my return spring had snapped. I purchased a brake hardware kit and replaced all of the springs. Now i'm trying to get the RETURN SPRING back on, and it simply won't go.

Called a company about purchasing the SST, but it was $40 and would not be available until May 26th. Noticed SEARS has various brake spring tools, but I'm not sure if they are directly applicable.

(1994 4Runner 4x4 SR5 v6)

Any ideas?

GSGALLANT

There are no springs on the rear brakes from a 2nd gen or 3rd gen 4Runner that I haven't been able to take apart and put back together with a pair of needle nose vise grips, or needle nose pliers (and safety glasses, of course).

Flash319

Ya vise grips and some bloody knuckles should do the trick. Does for me.....

a4runnerfreak

X3 on what was said above, and a few choice words always helped me.....lol!

Cansler

Finally got that beast of a spring back on using a long flathead screwdriver leveraged against a phillips head screwdriver inserted into a hole in the brake shoe.

T4L

Creativity.....the best tool of all.