Rear drum brake upgrade - Larger wheel cylinders?

I assume your TRD pro has the electronic booster that the trd offroad has... and in that scenario I don't know how it will work with the larger caliper pistons on the 5th gen 4runner front brake upgrade. I was able to update to a tundra/sequoia master and booster, together the front brakes with EBC yellow and sport rotors work really well. you won't be able to do that... so do your research from other trd offroad folks who have done the upgrade and see if they report better results, or squishy pedal, etc. There is at least one good thread on the different upgrades and details of the differences in the calipers, piston sizes, rotor diameters, width, etc. Find the folks who have gone before you and ask them details.

 

I have read through the 2nd Gen T4R brake upgrade thread extensively. Still have some more research, but it looks promising. Appreciate your thoughts and willingness to take the road less traveled. Will be watching to see your results!

 

honestly with the electrical one is not as bad as people make it out to be. (I think its actually the same part number as 4runners at least I thought I saw that). I have BBK up front and recently swapped the rear disc and went with BBK kit as well don't he rear and compared to the drums with just the BBK its pretty solid. Still a bit of extra pressure but its not soft If anything the truck is still just to damn heavy.

@racebug68 is even heavier than mine and I sit at 7k loaded. Sorry not drum related but give you my feed back if you don't find good drum options.

The parking brake is useless so I need to go back and do some more discovery it likely needs adjustment but overall the rear 4 piston 345 did not give me a soft pedal feel at all.

 

Not a bad setup. You will have some softer pedal but It was nice. It feels less effective as you get really heavy. I started there then went to Willwood Aero calipers (T4R) and I am about to swap in stoptech (tacoma sized pistons) and recently did the rear disc setup.

 

My pads and drums even with all the weight removed a couple weeks ago still had a lot left. I'm not sure how much they were helping but I was thinking they were over working but still had a good amount of life left.

 

The rear drums do need to be adjusted correctly. People may just try that first. With wheels off, spinning them you should hear very slight scraping. If you don't hear anything, it's likely the drum pads aren't doing as much as they could be

 

yah 100%. I tried a few times on the stock setup and it was just a scary setup with how my truck is setup.

 

I have read about the softer feel with the T4R upgrade, but understood it was still better braking under heavy load. My truck hovers just above max GVWR when towing our Patriot X1GT (max of 3500 lbs). I really noticed the need for better braking this past summer on a 12 day trip through Colorado. Coming out of the mountains was SLOW going with multiple stops to let the brakes cool. No warped rotors though!

Let us know what you think of the Tacoma StopTech calipers. I have looked at those as well. They aren't to spendy compared to other options, but they also aren't larger pistons IIRC. I run 17" wheels specifically so I could upgrade the brakes. Maybe I'll just same the money and buy the Willwood BBK this Black Friday.

 

It looks like you have well more than 2/32" lining remaining, the inspection failure point in my state.
85k is pretty good for a service item that costs less than $100.

 

Yah for sure I posted the TR4 upgrade post. In stop tests it stopped shorter by 10-12%. Not crazy but anything helps. If you add better pads like better too.

then better swapping out to willwood and hoping stoptech is better. But right now Wilwood up front and stoptech out back is nice. My wilwood is not the Tacoma setup so that may be better. I liked it because it used the same TR4 rotors. I’ll post up either I. The TR4 thread or my build thread

 

So your still on T4R rotors and calipers? Just Willwood calipers now, and swapping to Stoptech? Or are you swapping back to Tacoma rotors and calipers?

 

Setups:
1. Stock
2. T4R calipers with stoptech slotted rotors
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...unner-bbk-upgrade-for-2nd-gen-tacomas.504234/
3. Willwood Aero-6DS from RR Racing with the same stoptech slotted rotors (338mm)
4. (pending) Stoptech w/ 2 piece slotted rotor (same size though as the current rotors) (338mm)

The setups are listed in the thread minus the stoptech as it's not on yet for the front.

 

Well, I have a lot of updates to give, will have to put some time into how to write it all up and present pictures and such. But the short of it is that there are wheel cylinders available that can be made to work with very little modification. I have spoken to a few folks ad Advics (OEM supplier) and got several spreadsheets for product specs as well as OEM part numbers they cross reference to. So I was able to identify, find, and order several wheel cylinders to experiment with. I now have in hand, and have test fitted 1" and 1.125" wheel cylinders in the tacoma drums. I also have two types of brake shoes to play with (powerstop semi-metallic and brembo ceramic), and I have powerstop coated drums as well as new OEM drums to test with if I want.

I happen to have extra axle assemblies with backing plates and brakes to use to play with and test fit to make all my measurements and trials on the bench, looking over everything closely. I am fairly excited to do some real testing, even though I don't know how long that will be. Other projects and priorities have also crept into the picture.

More to come when I get time

 

I just got a set of Beefed Up Brakes Brake Shoes that I will be installing this weekend; they are suppose to have better bite; I'd see how they do with new OEM rear drums.

 

what type of material are those beefed up brakes? some variation of Ceramic, or Semi-Metallic?

Edit: Nevermind, they are ceramic. The pictures look very similar to the Brembo pads I have. Wonder if they actually come out of the same factory.

$39 Beefed Up Brakes Ceramic Brake Pad Kit w/hardware and grease Compatible with 2005-2023 Toyota Tacoma (Rear Brake Shoes)

https://www.amazon.com/Beefed-Up-Brakes-Premium-Compatible/dp/B08528X5T8

$65 Brembo S83559N Rear Drum Brake Shoe

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L7THMCW

The picture on Amazon is not accurate, by the way.

 

Mine at 45k cracked the pads in half and locked up, fun times dragging a tire in 4wd down the street to get out of the way.

 

I looked into this and so far came up with no answers at all; I am not sure what type of material they use; however I do have the front Brake Pads installed with new rotors and the bite is night and day compare to the OEM brake pads and rotors; or the previous Wagner OEX brake pads I had. The bite is definitely better with their pads and absolutely quiet. I am hoping the Rear Shoes will be the same.

They are the only company that claims their compound is an upgrade over the OEM setup; Designed to stopping additional weight. I'd be testing that claim tomorrow after the install.

 

Got any pics of that carnage, where/how it broke, etc? Never heard of that kind of failure before. We’re those original brakes or something you installed and got 45k out of before the catastrophe?

 

beefed up uses a ceramic compound according to Amazon link in previous post. Which makes sense for them being quiet, semi metallic have substantially more bite than almost any ceramic, at the expense of dust, faster wear, and noise. But of course there are lots of variation in the ceramic compound family, many use copper and other metallic particles, blending the lines somewhat between compound “types”

 

@racebug68 curious if you have any updates. Would love to hear what about your discoveries.