Intermittent brake shoe drag

I am still chasing a vibration at freeway speed- I've replaced everything in the driveline.

When I serviced the rear axle I did new wheel bearings, axle seals, wheel cylinders, brake shoes w/ associated kit, and had the drums turned by a local shop. All the parts used were OEM.

Now almost a year down the track, the vibration is almost gone, but still lightly present. I had the rear axle up on jacks stand (front wheels chaulked, and transmission in N), and spun the wheels- to my surprise, I could hear the shoe dragging in three different locations on the passenger side, and two different locations on the drivers side.

So I am thinking the shop must have done a shit job turning the drums. I see the premium napa ones are just as expensive as (online pricing) OEM drums. I've also seen threads where the new OEM or Napa drums come out of round already.

Would there be any other reason for intermittent drag? Anything, in particular, I should pay attention to when I pull the drums off to inspect things this afternoon?

 

Get your tires FORCED BALANCED if you haven’t already

 

What does that mean?

 

It’s a way to balance your tires instead of the standard tire balance,
It’s much more accurate and a better way to balance

 

Good to know. I'll be sure to ask for that when I get mine done.

 

If you have vibration issues definitely have it done!

it took discount tires 3 times to balance tires before they finally force balance them
and now the truck is smooth with no vibration

 

After the vibration persisted with a new drive shaft, I got new Procomp 7069 with Goodyear 265/75/16 Workhorse ATs- Road force balanced by discount tire after the original shop I got them from failed to balance them twice.

When I said I've replaced everything... I meant it.

 

I had BFG KO2 tires installed,

they could not get them balanced after 4 times.
At 60-70mph they vibrated badly.
Even with forced balancing.

returned them after 4k miles and

went back to the hankook atm tires and they balanced perfectly.
Could be tires too

 

I get the same vibration with my stock alloy wheels w/ the last set of rando-cheap tires on there as the new road force balanced wheel tire combo. The vibration was much different at first when the new wheels and tires were not correctly balanced by American Tire Depot (twice). Took it to Discount for a road force. The vibration was equal between the two sets at that point- so I can reasonably rule that out.

I went down a 2nd round of suspension refreshing- replacing the general spring + 1.5" AAL thinking that it may have been too stiff (with J59's)- no difference. I got a new DS from Drive Shaft Pro. I can switch them out and the vibration is the same. so not that (also changed out the transmission mount, and carrier bearing on the original shaft). When I did the front end, I rebuilt my kings and replaced the coils with fresh 600lbs springs (same as before). That work also involved lbj, ubj, lca and uca bushings, outer tie rods...

The vibration is more of a slight shudder in groups of threes- and it doesn't happen constantly. Some sections of road cause it, and others don't- those sections are fairly consistent.

So my leading theory is, at this point, it's gotta be the inconsistency of the out of roundness on the drums.

I've ordered a complete Napa rear brake overhaul (drums, shoes, and pin & parts kit). Should be here tomorrow. I'm quick enough to knock those out in a couple hours... (hell, it took me (solo) 1.5 hours to install the J59's start to road test). I didn't want to do just the drums, as then I would question whatever wear the shoes would have been subjected to. I am really hoping this is it, and the final nail in the vibration coffin was a bogus drum turning.

I haven't had great experiences with the BFG tires- but that was more to do with life span. Mountain driving (in Lake Arrowhead, CA) absolutely destroyed them... We're talking like 10k-12k miles per set. I switched to Goodyear MTRs on steelies after that for wheeling, and whatever the cheapest mid-road-at I could find on the stock wheels for street driving.

 

You have decided that it is not the road surface causing all the problems?

Some sections of roads the surface finish is just different that it causes a strange vibration to the point I think I am about to have a major failure.

Some stores will store brake drums in a upright position to safe space it will cause them to warp . I have had several Brake manufactures Reps tell me over the years .

Good luck.

 

Yes- I don't believe it's the road surface causing the problem. I've been driving around San Diego for 15 years. ALL of the road surfaces where this now occurs didn't change overnight- whereas my vibration and shutter did (after the complete suspension and driveline refresh).

 

Good news, actually GREAT news. Once I got the passenger side drum off, I could see the different areas the shoes were touching or not. The drivers side wasn't as bad passenger side. Got the new drums and shoes installed, and the shutter is completely gone. So the shop which turned the drums did a shit job, and sent me on a very expensive goose chase. Lesson learned there. Don't let a tire shop do brake work- take your junk to a machine shop.

 

Glad your issue is fixed .

I have to wonder if your drums were even turned.

Clean them up call it good. Anymore who knows.