buckshot1224

For some reason my brakes are grabbing and sticking sometimes. It seems to be the rear but not sure. I locked them up in my driveway yesterday to see if I could tellif one was sliding/grabbing more than the other.........the front slid as expected but neither rears did and they seemed fine.........pulled into work today and one of them grab again.

Now, I replaced the driver side rear axle bearing last week and got all the oil out I could.........I thought it was plenty clean. I also have blead the brakes several times and no air seems to be coming out but I don't have as much of a pedal as I did.

What would be your guess...........air?..........too much oil still in the brake drum?...........bad brakes?

WatsonToyota

maybe air leaking in from a bad proprtion valve???
when mine was getting bad the rears would lock up once in a while before it totally crapped the bed...i thought i backed into a car the first time it happened! lol

NYChopshop

when you start your truck, do you see the REAR-ABS light test and go off on your dash board? I have rear ABS, and while my front will lock up, my rear will keep itself from locking up. How does your pedal feel? Does it just stick in the braking position sometimes? If its not all spongey, its probably not air/water in the lines. Did you adjust your rear drums to fit the shoes? Does it pull right or left? If it pulls, check the side it pulls to. Check your wheel cylinder and caliper on that side. It's more than possible that the piston has extended all the way out to compensate for shot pads or extremely worn brake surfaces, getting the piston stuck when trying to return. Usually this causes a non-driveable condition. Please tell more.

blue_CA_yota

drum brakes are just tempermental, and they get worse as the shoes wear out.. since it's all been bled, check the shoes for life, and that the inside of the drum is smooth..

if all is good there, adjust the star wheel which is just below the brake servo.. Make sure that the shoes are in close contact to the drum without touching.. It will be next to impossible (without the aid of a BFH) to get the drum on if you adjust the shoes out too far.

Before you put the drum back on, just check all the pivot points in the drum mechanism. Make sure they aren't gummed up with a mixture of axle grease, brake dust, mud, water etc.. It should all move pretty nicely (aside from the resistance of the springs). I use a healthy coat of brake dust cleaner and a small wire brush to get all the junk out of mine. The thoery behind this, is if they're hard to engage they might just be "snapping" on and off instead of gradually building pressure on the drum.. At the same time, if they're hard to release, they will drag.

to re-cap.. shoe and drum life, star wheel, clean.

Hope this helps.

buckshot1224

NY - no light and I don't think I have any abs.........

Think I'm going to start by bleeding them one more time and checking the star wheel. The side I had to replace the bearing on was a little stiff to get off and on..........I didn't think much of it because the brakes felt fine before hand but......not now.

The brake pedal has a little more spong to it than before and I have to push it half way to really get some brake so I'm thinking air but damn.......how did that much get in there.

Thanks guys!

blue_CA_yota

that side is probably adjusted.. could prolly take a half turn out of the star wheel just to make your life easier.. i still say take it off again and check all of the pivot points for smooth operation.

desertcamper67

Did your brake shoes get saturated with gear oil? If so that could be the problem. You did get all the oil out of the drum as you could, right?

Yotapowa

If it feels spongy but youve bled the brakes several times, you may have gotten air into your master cylinder during the bleeding. To bleed the master cylinder remove the two lines coming out of it and put short brake lines into the ports. Bend the lines up and into the resevoir, it is important that the ends of the lines are submerged in brake fluid. Once you have that set up, pump the break pedal a whole bunch. Afterwards put everthing back together, you will have to rebleed your brake system, the correct order is passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver front.

Hope that helps

buckshot1224

fixed.........

busted wheel cyclinder on the side I had to replace the bearing and seal on

Thanks!