Garrett

I'm looking for help with my truck and am completely stumped. I'm open to any suggestions. My truck is a 96 tacoma, manual trans, 4x4, v6. What is happening with the truck is that when I slow down to a stop the entire truck jars as though the brakes were slammed on. It does this inconsistently (maybe 40-50% of the time) and will stop without issue most of the time. As you slow down it has done this mostly when the brake is depressed but a few times has done it after I let off the brake and am rolling slowly. When it stops the whole truck is really jarred and there is a clunking sound. Occasionally when I let the clutch out to drive I will accidentally kill it as if the e-brake was on. I have looked over the brakes to make sure everything was right. The e-brake cables are loose, the rotors, pads, shoes are ok. The transmission shifts smoothly but will sometimes need to clutch let out a little to get into reverse. Some days the truck works great and others it will do this at every stop. If anyone else has experienced this please give me some advice on where to look. Please let me know if there is more info you need. Could this be a clutch issue? Thanks in advance to any suggestions you all may have.

metalhed

Stuck caliper?

Adam F

Did you pull the drums and check? You need to.

Could be a bad ujoint or driveshaft. Pull the rear drive shaft, put it in 4wd, and drive around. See if the problem goes away.

Yukon

Check your rear drums, I don't know if tacos have the axle seal issue, but it sounds like if they do, you got it, or your drums are just bad.

GSGALLANT

Two things come to mind (well, two and a half).

First off, the clunking when you come to a stop or right after you release the brakes. Do you regularly grease your rear driveshaft slipjoint? Have you lately? If that starts getting low on grease, it will not slide freely, and when you come to a stop or leave from a stop your slip joint will extend/compress slightly as the rear of the truck comes up a bit when you stop and goes down again when you accelerate. When the slipping is restricted slightly due to lack of grease, you'll feel (and hear) a "kick in the pants" sort of clunking at times when you come to a stop... usually when you're going really slow.

As far as it feeling like your emergency brake is on... it could be (well, partially). You say the parking brake cables are loose, but do the bellcranks move freely when you pull on the cable, and more importantly, return freely by themselves when you release the parking brake cable? If they don't fully retract by themselves when you release the parking brake, you have to disassemble the bellcranks, clean them up, lube them up then re-install them. This is a very common problem.

Also, you Tacoma owners have a pivot point for the rear parking break cable somewhere along and above the rear axle that sometimes gets gummed up. You have to disassemble, clean and lube that one also.

Garrett

Thank you for the suggestions. My first feeling was that there was a problem with the rear drums. The e-brake cable is fine and has no issues. I have not puled the drums off but will do that to inspect them before I do that I will grease since that seems like the simplest place to start. Thanks all I will let you know how it works out.

SoCalPaul

X2 on greasing the drive shaft. Do NOT over fill the slip joint as that will put stress on the u-joints.

GSGALLANT

I know you said your parking brake cable is fine, but how about those bellcranks? Have you checked that they move freely and fully retract by themselves when you release the parking brake?

Garrett

Thanks for all your help. I lubed everything up yesterday. The problem seems to have gone away. It did it one time coming out of the driveway and then never while I was running around town. Its always nice to have people point out the simple stuff that gets overlooked.

GSGALLANT

No problem. Glad it fixed it.