Parking / emergency brake seized / stuck

Found a good tutorial on here. Doesn't look to be that complex of a job, but does look to be a frustrating one. My truck is a rustbucket an thinking of having the local mechanic do this work as life is busy at the moment
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replace-rear-parking-brake-cables.799982/

EDIT: Gonna do this myself. Gave the bracket bolts on the frame a good soak and was able to get them loose (frame was recalled so this made it easy). I've also been in the drums recently and know the basics. I'm only replacing the one side cable (at least for now) as it's the one that keeps locking up on me.

 

It's very doable step by step per that post. It's just a pain in the butt. The equalizer under the armrest, the bracket on top of the frame on the drivers side, the rubber grommets where the cable enters the cab and the spring/hook connecting to the rear drum lever at the right angle and tension are the areas that took way too much time.

wear work gloves or the rust bits around the brackets will shred you

 

Alright, I've replaced my passenger side parking cable. Took me a couple hours after work, it wasn't that difficult but it was a pain having to take the drum brake completely apart. It was completely seized in the aluminum bracket and useless as an E-Brake so I'm happy I replaced it.

That said, it's not my issue as I was able to replicate it and get the drum to lock up. It appears my shoes are sticking. It's a rusty mess in there and I had a leaky wheel cylinder that was also replaced. I cleaned up the contact points and used lithium grease. If it keeps sticking I'll replace the shoes, hardware, and springs but for now it seems I can easily disengage the brakes by tapping a hammer to the drum.

 

I mean, if your wheel cylinder is leaking, you're literally running out of brake fluid and losing pressure. Just replace it it's really inexpensive.
You had the whole thing apart already.
I bought two wheel cylinders when I did my rear drums expecting them to totally be leaking, but somehow they were still working. I guess it has to do with if they stay aligned properly at the metal portion contacts the tension arm properly.

 

Sorry for confusion. I replaced that leaky wheel cylinder last fall. It had been leaking for some time and I believe left to the corrosion in that drum brake. I cleaned up what I can and lubricated contact points. Hope my brakes stop sticking or I’ll need to replace those shoes and really clean it up.

 

I have had similar issues. One afternoon we had a flash freeze (went from 40f to 10f in matter of a few hours) and parking brake would not release. I assume moisture got into the cable and froze.. Managed to crawl into heated shop and let it warm up.
Lately I have been chasing harsh braking coming from the rear, and I am pretty sure it's parking brake dragging and making the drum hot/warp. Suppose I will try to work some lube into the lines and see if that makes a difference.

 

This technique worked for me. Incredibly useful. Thank you for posting.

 

I fought with the parking brake not releasing on both my 05 X-runner and now my 2016 TRD OR. I'm over it.

Locked up over the weekend while in the middle of desert on vacation with limited tools and after trying all the force I could give it (4 low, diff locked clutch dumps...etc...) I finally pulled the wheel and beat the shit out of it with a rock and it sort of let go. Took it apart today and everything is bent...brake shoes, lower anchor block rivets, backing plate, etc...

The issue, I believe, lies in the dumbass design that came about when toyota switched to this smaller drum in 2005. For some reason, even though not a single other drum brake application requires it, they added actuation of the bottom of the shoes as well as the tops, when previous versions that worked just fine since the '70s have only had the e-brake lever bear on the adjuster/balance bar assembly on the top.

The lower "reaction plate" as toyota calls it uses sort of a flat sheet metal version of a ball and socket design, which without very regular lubrication and control of the range of travel will bind and result in this problem.

I used the truck the launch the boat, so figured shoes might be rusting to the drum....but that's not the case based on the condition of the friction surface on the drums, they are pristine with no imprints or signs of the material having been bonded to the drum...It's my educated opinion that friction rusting to the drum was not the case here...it's caused by a shit design with several geometry problems.

Parts are ordered to replace just about everything under the drum...since everything is basically destroyed or bent at this point. I'm also ordering a couple sets of OEM shoes (I don't deal with aftermarket brake shoes...I've worked for an aftermarket supplier for 20 years and most of the aftermarket shoes are garbage)...

One thing I will do is to eliminate the lower reaction plate so that they will now operate just like the earlier style setup that worked just fine. This will require that the top hole is in the shoe is made round, instead of slotted so that the primary lever can simply pivot rather than pivot and slide to actuate the reaction lever and arm on the bottom. The only reason I can think of why toyota did it this way is because they shrunk the drum and figured it might be too small to be effective if designed in the conventional manner....but that's simply not true since plenty of disc brake rears that use an even smaller drum-in-hat parking brake assembly actuated in the conventional manner work just fine.

I'll post some updated next week or the week after as I try a few different things to see what works/doesn't work.

 

Thanks for this info. I’m about to replace everything in there myself including the brake cables. I’m tired of having it getting stuck.

 

Cables sticking is a different problem entirely....

The jambing up problem is due to the dumb fuck reaction arm design that spreads the bottoms of the shoes....not a single drum brake system until this one used such a method of applying the parking brake, and they worked just fine.

 

My cables sticking was my own fault. When I did the rear lift I left the cables dangling and over time rubbed off on the leafs. I cleaned and greased the rear brakes and still experience the sticking half the time I use the parking brakes. What is this reaction plate that you took out?

 

I've had this happen twice in the past wk, both times after going to the carwash. First time was after driving 1mile then backing up into my driveway. The following day, it would not move (pass. side stuck, driver side fine). Today it happened again, went to the car wash, drove about 20mi after, then backed up into the driveway. Almost immediately i could tell the parking brake was stuck (pass. side again). Sure enough, put the truck in drive and it would not move. I'd read a post here last wk that said kicking the tire would get the parking brake unstuck, so thats what i've done and its worked. I give the top of the rear passenger tire a few kicks and it gets the parking brake unstuck. I guess the solution is not going to the carwash.

 

Well, looks like I'm apart of this club now lol

(2019 TRD Off-Road Tacoma Manual with 35,000 miles)

I washed it, parked it in the garage and a few days later it kind of got stuck on me.

Didn't take much to un-stick it though given I rocked the vehicle with my body weight some and that maybe did the trick I don't know.

 

I've been too busy to do anything with it. I'll probably address it when they start to stick again as the shoes wear.

Replace the shoes with a new set of dealer shoes...that gets the geometry back where it needs to be for everything to not bind up. It's a temporary fix, but it works.

 

Thanks. I’ve actually been living with the sticking issue for now. I find that simply stepping on the brakes firmly free up the drums. I did finally get the back ordered Toyota parking cables and will do the entire rear brake system whenever I get around to it.

 

On my first car it turned out to be a leaky slave cylinder that contaminated the drum and made the E-brake stick.