Starting to look at rear brakes a bit

Thought I would jack up the rear quickly and do a rear brake test. You can see for yourself, one side brakes faster than the other, and releases faster too. Also the speed of the wheel spin seems really high, does anyone else think so? Truck was cold but had come down to about 1k rpm... still, seems fast to me...

Anyways, thoughts on brake adjustments and wheel spin speed?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7emZ6I-_9kLYbsjDWzONWkM4XmhQKC1/view?usp=sharing

 

Yeah, that appears faster than it should be normally.

 

Any idea why it would.be so fast?

 

No weight on it.

use your parking brake. Adjust until both rear wheels stop at the same click.

 

Weight on it? Like in the bed? Sure more weight would slow it down but even empty it shouldn't be so fast, I think?

 

No idea why its faster than mine.

 

@shifty` any ideas?

 

Solid chance the passenger side adjuster isn't set correctly, driver's side looks fine. Clearly the e-brake assembly needs to be adjusted as well.

You know how to properly set the adjuster on a drum brake, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye40kCeEwM0​

 

Yea I've done it before but will definitely get educated again. Do you think improperly adjusted brakes could make wheels spin so fast? Maybe no resistance against drums?

 

Open diff, so one wheel peel is common. No load at high idle (1k rpm) it’s gonna be moving. With the engine off, take the adjuster plug out of the backing plate for one side of the rear brakes. Use a screw driver to adjust the star wheel inside until you get a slight drag when spinning. Should still spin freely, but with an audible drag on the brake pads. Do the same to the other side. Same slight drag. Then use the LSPV as needed to add in more or less rear brake power as needed.

 

I've thought about doing this and other involved repairs, the only things that are holding me back are my resources and fear. If I had a second mode of transportation and the proper tools and space to do it, I’d definitely go for it.

 

I prefer to pull the wheels & drums, let me get a look at my shoes & axle seals, it'll also let you see how the adjuster works & which direction spreads the shoes. Make sure the last guy put everything back together right.

 

It's not the wheels spinning faster that bothers me or catches my attention. It's the fact that the passenger wheel is 50% slower to actually stop. It tells me the pads aren't close enough to the drum, thus not engaging as quickly as the driver's side.

 

I realize I've probably got a few decades of experience on you, and potentially plenty of others on here. Don't let that dissuade you, people are here to help you, not mock you. It's a blessing and a curse, sometimes I think I know how something works and it doesn't, then someone like @BubbaW comes along and show us the truth, gently letting me know I'm full of crap. I love him every bit for it too, you gotta respect your elders

But just some people might know more here doesn't mean you can't do this. I had a messed up situation where I got a flat on my rear driver tire last year, and some tire monkey used an impact hammer to over-torque two of the lug nuts. They sheared right off while I was changing the tire. No choice for me but to replace the lug studs. It wasn't what I wanted to do at 3:30 in the afternoon after a full day of work, but you get what you get, you either cry about it or fix the problem. It took me about 30 minutes to do, and it was way more intense than what you see in the video, but because you gotta take the drum off to do that also, I adjusted the brakes while in there. It wasn't hard, mostly because I've had to expose the drum brakes before to do lug studs in the past, so I'm familiar with it. Once you get familiar with what you're looking at (via repetition) this crap becomes easy and starts to make sense.

Point being, you can do it. Chock the front wheels. e-brake off. Crack the lug nuts loose out back. Jack the rear of the truck up, remove the tire on one side. The one place you may feel uncomfortable is, the drum usually doesn't come off as easily as you see in that video. A good deadblow hammer or even a small 3lb hammer tapping around the perimeter should loosen it up. If not, there's a threaded hole in the drum itself to help push it away from the hub.

I'd tell you how to use the access hole in the rear of the drum (remove its rubber plug, and use a stubby flathead to flick the star adjuster), but if you over-adjust there, you gotta pop the drum off anyway

The video covers it all. Follow the leader

 

I do have the LSD though, would that not matter in regards to one wheel spinning first?

 

yea thats exactly what ill be doing, perhaps even changing the brakes, well see. The rear adjuster hole thing is probably so rusted

 

yea exactly, and when I pull the ebrake its very taught on driver side, with lots of slack on passenger. Whats weird is even when I release the ebrake, its still very taught on driver side. Not sure whats going on, havent opened it up yet

 

Only one way to do it right.

You have to fix the E-brake to ever get the rear brakes working properly:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/rear-brake-adjustment-theory-and-practice.99575/

 

Not with both wheels in the air. LSDs are good till about 95/5 % split most of the time. With one wheel in the air all the power will go to it. It needs a little traction on both to work.

With regards to the wheel speed being so high and braking so fast: with it in the air it has no rolling resistance to keep it in check, so it's gonna go whatever speed 1k rpm is in 1st. Braking is the same; it doesn't have to slow the truck down, only the weight of the wheel. So it's gonna stop it quick.

But yeah, definitely check the adjustment, and make sure that e-brake is working good.

 

Make sure this linkage is free.

 

you have mechanical LSD? Had the sticker on the pumpkin, or the “autoLSD” which uses brake modulation? Yours looks like it could be the Auto kind.

 

Specifically, read this reply: https://www.tundras.com/threads/adjusting-rear-drums.62519/#post-2147790

Also reading reply #31 on the 2nd page may help too.

I don't think this is true for the later-model trucks. I don't believe the auto-adjust mechanism exists after '05, potentially after
'03-'04. There was another thread on the topic that dove deeper into this, but ... I think this covers it too. https://www.tundras.com/threads/drum-brake-star-adjuster-lever-revisited.94151/#post-2491506

 

If they got drums, they have adjusters.

 

My auto adjust exercise was to drive in reverse & hammer the e brake on/off half a dozen times.

 

Right, I understand that. They have adjusters, but no integration with the parking brake, you can't just set the parking brake and expect the drums to auto-adjust, which I think is what Aerindel was implying, but I may be wrong. Sure, setting the parking brake will engage the shoes, but it doesn't engage the star adjusters like it does on earlier models, from what I gather.

 

Post a pic of your drums open.

 

Who, me?

 

yessir.

 

Shit I linked the wrong thread. Holup.