STUCK WITH BRAKE DRUM OFF HELP!

Long story short, I got the drum back on. I failed to remember to adjust the star gear to bring the shoes in. I had to go quite a ways, and had to go opposite the direction where the wheel clicks by holding the restrictor out of the way. So everything is back on and the truck seems to stop ok. HOWEVER, I was unable to get it to go back on with the 2 springs in place where I thought they went. So I have a handful of parts that are no longer in the drum. I'll have pics up later tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully I haven't botched it too bad, and they are ok to get me around town until I can get off the island and into anchorage next month. I hadn't planned on spending any $ at a brake shop, but I think I need to have a professional deal with the rear brakes.

 

I would not drive that anywhere with a handful of parts left over.
Have you considered comparing the right side to the left side?

 

Great advice but I just can't past what I think the answer may be " I tried that but now I got twice as many parts left over"

 

And your driving it with incomplete brakes?

Maybe a write up on here.

 

A handful of parts is an overstatement on my part. The 2 springs are hold down springs. Can anybody give me info on how to get these back on?. And then I have one small brass colored piece that is the only thing I'm really concerned about as I don't know what it is or where it came from. The brass piece came out while I was trying to get the drum back on. The last part actually fell off of the outside of the drum, and doesn't seem overly critical. I'm going to be doing some research for now as to what these are and am not driving the truck until I know.

As for trying the other side to see where these came from, I have no desire to get into the same hot water on the other side. The side I got off seemed to have plenty of life left on it, and I'm assuming the other side is the same.

 

Nice pic for help,

 

So I guess I need to get ahold of a couple of these slotted washers and try to get these springs re-installed. OR I may just have both sides drums and shoes replaced since they have 130,000 miles on them. I just don't need brake problems halfway down the alcan. I really wish I hadn't even messed with them. Any info on how to reinstall the hold down springs?

 

Ok, thanks. What scares me is that I have to get back into the brake to do this, and I wasn't supremely comfortable with it once I had it off. We'll see how it goes : x

 

So here's a picture from last night of my assembly. You can see that the hold down springs are not on there. I only see the pin for the spring on one side....Anybody else see anything glaring at them? I'm trying to decide if I should try and get this back together or just replace both sides completely. How do the pads look etc. I need opinions, as I really don't know what I'm looking at.

 

If you dont have that nifty tool, you can always use an expanded pair of pliers to hold the washer in, and a pair of needle nose to turn the pin into place. Also, make sure you have the bigger shoe and the smaller shoe in the right order. I made that mistake once, and had to reverse them.

 

If I remember right, the smaller shoe goes to the front, the larger toward the rear, and watch out for greasy paw prints getting on the shoes.

 

diver, take off the other side drum and look at it to compare. the drum is just held on by the wheel so you won't mess anything up by taking it off

also my truck has just over 128k and the shoes are above 60% life. if you don't tow or haul that often they rarely wear out as the BPV is not opened up fully

I just took both my drums off and wire-wheeled them to get the scale off the outside and inside, also sprayed brake cleaner to get the years of dust off. I should have taken pictures but didn't need to

 

Thanks, and that's what I'll probably end up doing. As for not messing anything up taking the drum off, that's all I did last night I just wanted to spray things down, grease the contact points and adjuster and make sure I still had pads. I must have torqued down too hard on the bolts trying to get the drum off and compressed the springs to the point they sprung. I'm going to try and get my hands on a hardware kit and get these replaced ASAP. Thanks guys.

 

As for the mystery brass colored part. Any ideas anybody??

 

Ok, so there's a part on the bottom picture you posted that looks exactly like the brass colored part that came out last night. Any idea how to replace this if I get a new one? The one that came out was bent.

 

I went through this little slice of hell last year. I was trying to inspect the pads when I realized that the star wheel was frozen and wouldn't turn no matter how I tried. I slowly walked the drums off but the passenger side caught the pads and popped the same springs off and bent the little retainer caps. I had to run to Pep boys and go through different packs of parts with the counter guy to find ones that would work since the entire area was out of Tacoma spring packs.

 

Agree 100% with DD. You need someone with experience with brake assembly to look at it. Even if you have to pay them. Brakes are one of those things you don't want to take chance on. Seriously get someone with experience to teach you. Really.

 

And this is why you do one side at a time...
I was lucky enough to have a hot, racer chick teach me brakes when I was 19... I got stuck with a drum that wouldn't go back on... Called her.. She shows up in a sun dress, ready for a date, and says, "Gimme a flannel, and I hope you have some GoJo and a nail brush. I'm NOT going on this date with dirty hands."
Hah... Fuckin cool chick

 

OK, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not get offended here. I am saying this only because of safety concerns, and I am not by any means bullshitting you here. DO NOT DRIVE THAT TRUCK! Call a tow truck and get it towed to a shop to get this fixed. That "little brass piece" is part of the cylinder that does your automatic adjusting. Without that piece the adjuster can slip loose and fall into the drum. Then it could get lodged/stuck and lock up that wheel, causing you to have an accident! I'm not playing around here, get that thing fixed before you EVER put it on the road. Driving a truck with those pieces missing, you pose a danger to yourself, and to others on the road.

This is a break down of the 2005 Tacoma drum brake parts and assembly.



You can buy the hardware kits at Advance Auto:
Spring and pin kit 17263
Adjuster Kit 12560