rsfire541

So my friend has a 2001 or 2003 4x4 Tacoma, we've been taking it out daily for work and now it's getting this randomly occurring issue. It's only happened twice now.

The rear driver side brake drum is not releasing all the way for some reason. It's not stuck real bad as it drives fine and when I jacked the truck up I can rotate the tire by hand, but it did take a little force, not free spinning. It's also of course radiating lots of heat and smells awful.

So I don't know crap about drum brakes, I've always had disk brakes. Any idea what may cause it to randomly stick and later fix itself? I don't want to tear into the thing with no idea what to look for.
Thanks guys

TheDurk

Sticking bellcrank on that side?

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attach...ank-repair.pdf

Jomoka

Do you use the parking brake? Old cables can get waterlogged, freeze, and stick 'on' in cold weather.

A sagging cable would distinguish between the two.

rsfire541

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll check that out today. And yes, the ebrake is used often and on steep mountain roads so it's fully tensioned.
So basically I'll want to look for a sagging cable(should be taut normally?) And then look to see if the bellcrank is not touching it's backing plate. These should both be pretty obvious right? Any other things to look for?

Nuthuts96

iTrader: (1)

I had the same symptoms- hot drum, binding wheel. Per Murphy, happened to occur on our way camping! Once we got it up to about 30mph, the shoe would release, but dangerous nonetheless. Possibility for fire if it gets hot enough.

Both bellcranks on the 4runner froze up- they weld themselves to the pivot housing (two different metals) which results in the hardware to stop from pivoting.
Just spend an hour, take one side apart, and you'll see how it all works (I, too, knew nothing about drum brakes before this foray). Now, I can disassemble/reassemble each side in 20 mins.

I ended up replacing the whole Dorman brake line ($50-online) and both bellcranks (about $50/side @dealer)- solved the problem for me. I've read if any water gets in the line, it needs to be replaced immediately. I figured after 17 years, there's probably a little water in there.

Works perfectly (with a little fine tuning). It took about a day's worth of work from start to finish. Getting the bellcranks was another issue. They make em, but only from the dealer on special order.
Good Luck!

rsfire541

Hey Nuthuts thanks for the info there. So when yours started binding was it pretty much stuck bound up? Other than when going over 30, or would it go back to normal later. Because my friends truck was bound up a bit one day, then later that day it was normal and totally released. She thought it was fine till it did it again a week later. And it's not radiating crazy heat, it's for sure hot, but i can still touch the drum briefly.

And when you looked into it, was your ebrake cable sagging or taut? I looked at hers and it's taut, no sag. I'll upload pics of it and the bellcrank here in a min.
Where it welded itself to the pivot housing, was it pretty obvious? I'm sure i'll be able to tell what's going on once I tear into it, but i'd like to get a good idea of what to expect.

Hopefully I won't have crazy issues finding that bellcrank, seems stupid they are hard to get being a common problem. Thanks for all the info. Glad to hear it wasn't awful awful changing it.

rsfire541

Ok here's a pic of the cable and the bellcrank. I assume that part is bellcrank. I put my finger behind that set screw so the gap can be seen, make sure it's normal

Ryan G.

you may need a rear brake job. Every time you use the parking brake you tighten the brakes by one click on the star wheel. Quit over using your parking brake and this won't happen. Adjust your star wheel back to where the brakes just barely drag on the drum. See if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't you prolly need to rebuild your wheel cylinder or buy a new one. Rebuilding them is kinda fun and not hard. Good luck

rsfire541

Ok thanks, I'll try adjusting that star wheel too, see if that makes a difference. I can't say if the ebrake has been being overused as it's not my truck. But she did just have the brakes changed pretty recently, few weeks i think. So that could always be related.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

i have never had any problems getting the bell crank brackets.

They are not really special order they just come from the distribution center that has them..A dealer can`t stock every part for every vehicle.

I use my emergency brake ever time the truck moves I have yet to have a brake get to tight.

With the emergency brake off you should be able to move the bell crank with your hand pulling it towards you .You are fighting against the return spring but it should move.


You might want to pull the drums off and take a look.

I would.

Nuthuts96

iTrader: (1)

^This. Pull the drums off. May be difficult the first time (check youtube for examples). It can be done loosening the star adjuster, but I didn't know where that was until I got the drum off the first time. Talk about a Catch-22! The first time I just banged away on the drum with a mallet until it released from the shoes.

rsfire- Those symptoms you described are what I had before replacement. Shoes dragged until they released, then fine. Taut cable.

The metal arm you have going into the rubber boot in the picture corrodes to the pivot piece from the inside. You have to remove that to see what's going on. You'll end up replacing the arm, bracket/housing, rubber boot covering the housing, and pivot pin & retaining clip. I got some new fasteners while I was at the dealer, too.

One side was seized, the other wasn't far behind. While I was in there, I figured getting a new cable in the system certainly couldn't hurt.

DRCOFFEE

There should be no gap. If the bolt on the bell crank isnt resting on the backplate, the shoes arent releasing completely. Check the pivot point between the left and right cable. It balances the force between both sides. On mine the pivot bolt had rusted up squeezing the nylon bushings both top and bottom. I should have taken pictures but it required grinding off the rust from the bolt shaft and repacking with silcone grease. Just to be clear. There should be about 1/8" of play with that bolt. It should sit on the backplate but have 1/16"-1/8" of play before you feel resistance.

The pivot bolt is the one bolt that is pointing up. The nut is welded to the rear axle.