Took my Runner to the base hobby shop this morning and put it on the lift to change my oil. Did that and decided to look into my brake pulling problem. Turns out only 1 of the 4 pistons on the drivers side was moving. I took the caliper off, cleaned it up and worked the other 3 pistons back and forth about 5 times. I need a rebuild badly. Also figured what the hey so I rotated my tires too while it was on the lift.. Then figured while I had the back tires off I might as well pull the drums and inspect the back brakes too.. OMG I could not believe how much mud and dirt was caked in there from when I got stuck. I spent about 45 minutes on each drum with a wire brush and an airhose. (Make sure you have good ventilation if your messing with airhoses and brake dust) I HIGHLY recommend pulling your drums and cleaning the crap outta them if you haven't had them apart in a while. Ebrake works better now and overall my braking is much better than it was. Last thing I did was poke around underneath with a screwdriver and the airhose blowing mud out from all the nooks and crannies. I bet I got 10 lbs of dirt out from the underneath. It looked clean to the naked eye. Most of it came out of the front crossmember where them 1/2" holes go across the bottom. Anyways I always feel good when I give my Runner some TLC so thought I'd share my story.
UK

 

Good ventilation??? Cleaning off brake dust with an air hose is a really bad idea. I have read many stories of where mechanics have gotten lung cancer from breathing brake dust.

A quick search on Google turned up:

http://www.ephedrine-lawyer.com/AsbestosBrakes.htm

 

i probably need to clean out my drums sometime soon, considering how much mudd i tend to find on the trails

so anyway, since ive never taken the drums apart before, what exactly is the procedure for doing so?

 

NCSU..... If you have never taken them apart I can about guarantee they'll be hard to get off. Theres two place to thread a bolt in on the drum to pull the drum off though. You'd be scared if you saw the amount of crap in there!

Glenn... the amount of brake dust was very minimal compared to the amount of dirt in there. I was careful and had on safety glasses, earpads, and a mask before I started.

 

I don't think using compressed air to blow the brake assemblies clean is a bad idea, unless you are running on the old asbestos pads. Asbestos was phased out several years ago, now there are organic, metallic, and ceramic compound brake pads available. I know asbestos was banned from pads here in the US.

 

Joey, that would make a great write-up if you had taken pics.
I for one have never ever pulled off my rear drums before.

I'd like to see two tech articles for the Tech section here.
1. Rear brake drum pull off and cleaning, possibly shoes too...
2. Front brake pad installation.

I have done neither, and I'd like to replace my own pads up front before to long.
Toyota did it a few years back and put on new rotors, but my pads are now squealing when I apply the brakes sometimes.
The pads look good, they may have not used a lube that you can put on I guess to prevent them from squealing from what I have heard.

 

Corey ya pics woulda been good but my digi cam is dead. Anyways both tasks are super simple and I will email you the steps if you want.

 

Last weekend, I finally got around to installing cross-drilled rotors and all but one piston would go back in on both left and right calipers -- the lower inner pistons were frozen. Solid. They wouldn't budge. I had to reuse my old pads (I spent an hour sanding down the old pads to be flat). The brakes still work but I not happy about it. I guess I have no other choice but to get rebuilt calipers -- or do I?

 

Truck Mike take the caliper clear off the truck and find yourself a giant C-Clamp and put the big squeeze on it. If that doesn't work find a shop with a hydraulic press. Once you get it broke loose put the hardline back on and pump it out, take it back off and push it back in. Do this several times. It may or may not work. I got away with it when I changed my pads..had the same problem as you. One of my old ones broke in half when I tossed it on the floor so I HAD to find a way to get the new ones in.

 

Thanks. We have a 20-ton press at work. But I'm going to have to put new hard lines on because I rounded one fitting off already trying to do what you suggest (I used a 10mm fitting wrench). I'm gonna try and bodge it first and rebuilt units will be Plan B.

 

Oh man I forgot to mention don't use a regular box end wrench on fitting's they are made of brass. What you need is a Flare wrench. Their made specifically for doing brake lines and look pretty funky. Guess it's a little late now. The hardline should be easy to replace though at least.

 

Yeah, by a fitting wrench I meant a flare wrench. Still, they rounded. Who here is with me when I say I would pay a premium (say, an extra $500 to $1,000 per vehicle, new or used, for stainless steel hardware on our vehicles? Fluck the heated seats and auto climate-control systems...I want stainless hardware throughout in appropriate applications!) for not having to deal with problems like this. I'm a young guy for some people but in my 15 year of working on vehicles, nothing takes up more time and grief than wrestling with rusty mild steel hardware on our cars.

 

Amen! I can't tell you how many rusty bolts I've snapped in 2 leaving the bolt in the hole.

 

Rinse your drums out with lots of water. The dust will not become air born like compressed air will force it to. In dust environments water vapor is the best control so you'll see firefighters using a fog stream to protect the air.

 

Good idea cept it was sitting on lift in the base hobby shop in a big garage with lot's of other cars around. Don't think they woulda liked me flooding the floor.

 

I've used a 1 gallon bottle of water before to do it. You don't need a hose to do it.

 

Victor thanks I'll keep that in mind next time I do it so I don't endanger myself or others around me.