Rear brake issues

Hello!
This is my first post.
I’ve done many, many searches and believe I know what the issue may be, but want confirmation.
I’m basic level skills. Mechanical knowledge is lacking, but if explained or with a video I feel confident. I’ve re-plumbed a house, learned timber framing, etc all from videos. Also fixed an atv, snowblower, etc from videos.
Diagnosing the problem is my current hiccup.
It’s a 2004 trd manual 6 cylinder.
I work a mile from my father in laws house. Drove to work yesterday morning from my house (20 mins away), it’s cold here and was 10-15 degrees. A little bit into my drive I hear a squealing sound, It goes away when increasing the speed. I get to work. Truck sits 8 hours. When I leave work I check the sound with a coworker, we hear the belt squeaking a little bit, sounds like the alternator belt. He leaves. I go to leave and when I pull out of street parking the rear end vibrates hard, sounds like it’s skipping. I pull over, further down the road, put it in reverse back it up a little bit, no noise, pull back out, seems fine, 25 seconds later does it again. I’m in nighttime traffic and cave man brain took over, it said, “your one minute from a safe driveway and place to assess situation, rear breaks might be locked up, pump the break hard to the floor a couple times, drop it into 4 and send it to my father in laws house.” So that’s what I did. It did the skipping/shuddering thing off and on until I got there, maybe 5-6 times. <I realize this action may be the culprit and in hindsight should have obviously pulled over again, gotten the headlamp out and really assessed the situation; but I didn’t and here we are.
When I got to the house. I looked at the rear brakes. The drivers side parking brake looked engaged, the other side did not. I went to try and set the brake, it would only pull a little bit.

key detail, I am absolutely 100 percent certain that I had not set the parking brake at work, I park on a flat, so normally just leave it in first.

I tried pulling the cable from rear drivers side tire to where it links up with the other side, completely locked up. The passenger side cable moves freely. I unhooked the brake from the stuck cable and the brake rested back on its adjustment bolt quickly and with the same authority as the other side. Zip tied the cable out of the way. Backed out, no problem, drove around the block no problem. Door open, head out so I can hear….mighta heard a little grinding noise but hard to tell with the studded tires. Get back, go inside house to grab stuff and finish a small project I had started. (25 mins) Go to leave, the problem happens again. I stop, for experiment sake I unhook the other parking brake cable. Problem does not go away.

Hope I mentioned all the important details.

From what I’ve read through searches, it sounds like I should probably Jack it up, pop the tire off and see if the brakes are locked inside, or if something broke and is locking up the drum brake internally.

Am I on the right track? Is there something specific I should look for? What pitfalls might I encounter? Is this brake issue tied into the squealing sound I heard in the morning and the alternator belt needing tightening an absolute coincidence??
Any help moving forward would be appreciated.
Also, I’m finishing my house right now so money is tight, meaning if I can fix it I would prefer it, but if necessary could bring it to a garage.

 

I'm no expert, but it sounds like you've got it pretty much figured out. I've heard that in cold weather drum/parking brakes can freeze up. I'm sure someone will pop in and be able to tell you with more certainty soon.
Hardware kits (springs, etc) for the rear brakes are very inexpensive. There are two different designs for them from what I recall, so double check before ordering.

 

Take your drums off and snap pics, then upload those here. Impossible to know until then, but it does indeed sound like you're on the right track.

 

Absolutely! Photos make sense. Will get some as soon as the drums are off.

 

Here are the photos. The first 3 are from the drivers side. It seemed to have more moisture in there than i expected, but I’m no expert. This is the side that had the tension from the stuck/frozen parking brake cord.

The second group of photos are from the passengers rear side. I marked them with a red P on the left corner. When I opened it, to my very beginner eyes, I instantly thought this was the problem. Pads look all jacked up and worn irregular.


took the photos before I cleaned them, will clean them and provide more photos if necessary.
Cheers and thanks in advance!

 

hard to tell in those pictures, but you have a wheel cylinder or axle seal leaking.
Looks like differential fluid to me the way it built up.

Anyways, you need new shoes and hardware too.

 

Agreed that it looks like you may be losing diff fluid out of the driver side axle seal, and you appear to need new brake hardware and shoes.

I'm guessing your original issue was actually a sign your wheel bearing is on its way out (seems rear wheel bearing failures can make themselves known through a number of different symptoms).

Alternatively, perhaps your hardware is bad enough that one of the shoes was intermittently sticking. I'd pull on the bell crank and watch to see if the shoes seem to both actuate outwards symmetrically.

 

Passenger side needs new shoes and hardware for sure. I'd inspect the drums on both sides as well, might have something to do with the issue.

Driver side appears to have an axle seal leak. Not sure how oil/grease could get in there otherwise. Clean everything up on the driver's side with a degreaser. You might have to keep an eye on this as you work to resolve your brake issue. Could be your problem? Not sure.

I'd also confirm that the bell cranks work properly. Pull on the crank to tighten (expand) the shoes and watch the parts inside the drum to ensure they operate as they should.

Once you confirm everything on the brakes works as it should I would try to dial in the parking brake cable to the proper specs which I believe is 12 - 18 clicks should have the parking brake fully engaged.

 

All this seems like great advice. I’m going to, get another bottle of brake cleaner and finish cleaning everything thoroughly.
-pull on bell brackets to see if they work properly.
-Order new brake hardware and shoes.
Look into possibility of axel seal replacement and assessing my wheel bearing.
I’m thinking I should definitely resolve the grease issue before installing new brakes.

hopefully I didn’t miss some key detail that was suggested.
Thank you for the help!!

 

Maybe slave cylinder sticking? If sticking, Take it apart, check for rust. Brake fluid absorbs water out of the air. Hone it out and smooth the pistons or plungers or whatever they're called, or replace them. Not very expensive. Don't have a hone? Try some. sandpaper wrapped around a piece of sponge and a drillmotor with a spade bit or whatever. Should change brake fluid.

 

Yeah, that one side is all slicked up with gear oil looks like, it ain't gonna work, could be why the other side is so worn also because it was carrying the load. If you're a newby, make sure a take some pics before disassembly so you remember how it goes back together. One shoe is longer always if you haven't noticed.

 

Very wise OP. Don't want to spend good money on brakes then ruin them by letting gear oil coat them again.

 

Some Tacomas have a tendency to "over adjust" the rear shoes. When you pull on the parking brake handle you are pulling a cable that goes back towards the rear axle and that cable pulls on a bracket that pulls on a cable that goes to each rear assembly. There is a self adjust bracket on the outside of the backing plate, it has a specified clearance in order to operate properly. In addition, there is a lever pivot point with bushings. The bushings in this lever will wear and you will get slop in the cable system. Is this the cause of the auto over adjusting? not 100% sure. Fix the oil leak, replace the shoes and all of the springs and if the pivot bushings are gone, replace them too.

My 96 4X4 had this issue but my 98 Prerunner and my 03 did not.

 

100% need a rear axle seal. Might as well do it right and replace the axle bearing, retainers, seals etc. It's labor intensive so get ready for a steep bill for that.

Start fresh and get new brake shoes. Also new drums or have yours turned.

Side note your rear shocks look so rusty. Dang I'm so lucky I live in a place that doesn't destroy cars like that.

 

100% this. Reuse the existing shoes (soak them in brake cleaner) until you're positive that the grease/oil/brake fluid situation is solved.

 

Also, given all that rust, you need to inspecting the back plates as well. They hold the pins in place, so if the plate is rusting away to nothingness, you're going to be back in there soon...

Just a thought- it might be easier to find a whole rear axle assembly (be mindful of the gearing) and swap it in.

 

Yeah you're gonna need about two grand worth of work done.

Half of that $ is the axle seals and bearings. Most likely the driver side bearing has been flushed of its grease, and is only a matter of time before it fails.


All the inner drum parts can be ordered and replaced, its critical for those to slide and move freely.

Pickups are dangerous to begin with, they need all the help they can get.

 

I would replace the cylinders too.....
if one of those boots fail it would be a complete loss of pressure...

and destroy the new shoes too.....

 

Welcome to TW, as you can tell it's the right place.

I'm gathering it's while it's moving, and not in neutral.

Absolutely, but as mentioned above the grease around those pads indicates a potential other issue. Once you get the pads off, you will know more. While you're at it if the rear is in this condition might as well check the front pads/disks too.

 

I have just finished replacing my rear brakes, LH axel wheel bearing, wheel seal etc. As other have said you are in the same boat, one thing I would add is that you wheel seal probably failed due to your Diff breather being clogged and you diff over pressurized and blew oil past the whees seal. Mine was completely plugged with rusty crap. just installed a new breather and did the relocation thing as well.
Good luck, my wheel bearing was $800+ and I had to get it done at the dealer as nobody close is set up to do it.