FunRunner01

Anyone every had to adjust their brake pedal? I know my Haynes manual talks about how to adjust the freeplay and all that. I Master cyclinder is fine (so I am told) and the travel is outside my personal leve.

HELP

Flamedx4

Sure, piece of cake. Just do what it says in your Haynes manual. But, what does "the travel is outside my personal leve." mean?

User 051420

Good luck with that one. My mechanic tried to adjust mine. No dice. Master cylinder is getting replaced as we speak.

TStango

I adjusted mine. It was fairly easy and made a huge difference, especially when wheeling. I found that too much travel in the pedal slowed down my reaction time quite a bit. From what I remember, all you have to do is pull a pin out and rotate the attachment bracket between the pedal and the plunger thingy that goes through the firewall. A few turns will do the trick.

FunRunner01

err... travel outside my personal comfort level.

Interesting note, i called the stealer they said that if it grabs lower than before that is uaually a sign that you need to do the rear brakes.
They said that the rear brakes control where on the pedal's path it bites and starts working. Anyone confirm this?

TechWrench

In a sense they are right, but their explaination is lousy. With out knowing what you specific vehicle has, I am going to assume you have front disks, and rear drums. Becuase of the difference in the way they work, is is not unusual for your brake pedal to drop lower before grabbing as the rear brakes wear down. It's not that the rear brakes bite first, they are acutally last to grab. You may not need new rear brakes, just an adjustment to take out the free play. You should have someone you trust look at the rear brakes to know for sure.

FunRunner01

i did have a shop adjust it, they were only marginally better after that

TechWrench

I would suggest that it be checked again. Reason being that, if you have gained extra travel in the pedal before brakes apply, something in the system is not right. There is no reason to assume that the change happened in the pedal height adjustment. If you change the pedal adjustment to compensate for this you are treating the symptom, not the cause. If the real source of the problem is found later on, and fixed, you will probably wind up having to re-adjust the pedal height back to what it was originally.

4RUNR

I would not trust anyone but an experienced Toyota mechanic to adjust the pedal. It is just too easy to end up with dragging brakes, and you won't even notice it.

FunRunner01

I adjusted the pedal, major happiness, it feels much better, and I also cleaned and ajusted the rear brakes. It feels great.

Quick question: What does dragging brakes mean and how can you tell?

SolidDigital

I know this is an old thread but thought I'd post my problem:

If I jack up any wheel there's resistance.. I can spin it but as soon as I let go the wheel stops. Sometimes after the truck has been sitting for a few days the brakes will grab enough that there's a thud and the truck jumps forward as it first moves...

Since all four wheels grab should I look into adjusting the brake pedal?

I'm not sure where my haynes manual is.. anyone know of an online write up on how do adjust it/check it?

Maj

SolidDigital,

Sounds like your rear axle seal(s) are leaking. The lube mixes with the brake dust and forms a paste. This makes the shoes stick to the drums resulting in a dragging wheel and a thunk when the shoes do release from the drum.

SolidDigital

hmm well the rear diff leaks but I haven't noticed anything on the brakes.. the front brakes do it too haha

jfkell05

did anyone have a write up for this or pictures, im not sure what to adjust.