I just did my rear drums and shoes on my '96 4Runner Limited, and I have a slight vibration in the steering wheel under braking. I tested the brakes a couple of times by hitting them a little harder to see if there was much of a difference after swapping them. My question is... Can you only feel vibrations from the front brakes through the steering wheel, or would it be possible to feel the rear brakes vibrating through the wheel as well? If it's not possible to feel the vibrations through the rear, it may be possible that I warped a front rotor during the testing. It doesn't really matter since I'll be doing the fronts next weekend....

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

It's possible that the rears may be out of round. You just weren't feeling them when the brakes weren't adjust tightly because the rear drums weren't very effective. When you adjusted them, and there's more pressure being put onto the rears, then you'll feel them.
You might want to try machining the drums. That might help.

But i would machine the rears only after i've done the fronts.
Be sure to machine the front too if you're swapping out brake pads.

 

I'd imagine most viberation felt through the steering wheel would come from the front. I mean there is a direct connection between the front brakes and the steering wheel. the rear viberation would have to travel across the axle, through the diff, up the driveshaft, through the transmission, through the transfer case, down the front driveshaft, through the front diff and so on through the steering. Of course I could be wrong cause I never experienced this problem before.....

 

I'm not sure that the drums would be out of round... they are brand new... so I'm hoping that it's just the fronts. Thanks for the input... I guess I'll just have to do the fronts to see if it helps... otherwise I'll have to pull apart the drums to see if there's anything contributing to the pulsing feeling...

 

warped rotors.

 

Well as it turns out.... it was one of the new rear drums... it wasn't sitting on the hub properly. There was tons of anti-cease all caked in the corner of the hub ring so it made the drum sit slightly uneven... only a 5 min fix (luckily). Thanks for the responses!