Brake replacements (rear drums too?)

Hi TW,

I did as much searching here as I could but couldn’t find a good answer..

I’ll be replacing the front pads here shortly. Im at 115k miles and this is only the 2nd brake pads replacement. I don’t believe prev owner did anything with the rear at 40k.

Should I be doing anything with the rear drums? If not replacing the shoes, should I be adjusting the spring, etc?

I do all my own maintenance and repairs but I have no experience with drum brakes. Noob there

 

They may not need replacement yet, but you should at least take off the drums and check them out. Google for a video, super easy.

 

Yes, pull the drums inspect material left and clean the assembly with brake clean and adjust the star key to where you can just barely wiggle the drum back on, then you can use a screw driver or brake shoe spoon to tighten a bit more through the slot in the back of the baker plate to where you can just barely hear/feel the shoes dragging on the drum with everything cold.

The shoes also have "ears" on them you can pry the shoes up a tad and squidge some ceramic brake grease on those movement spots but use sparingly you don't want it gooping onto the pad material.

 

Yeah just get some eyes one them. Clean them up with some brake clean while your at it and Maybe adjust them if needed. Be prepared, they may be a mother to get off. Might have to dial back the adjustment to get them off and/or beat the heck out of the with a mallet to break the hub "seal" I think the drums on these have a couple threaded holes you can put jacking bolts in but I can't remember. My 3rd gen 4Runner had them and if I know Toyota, they haven't changed lol.

 

On my ‘09 OR, I would periodically check, clean and adjust rear drums if needed. Otherwise they were left alone. Cleaning them up helped ease future inspections as mine were chronically rusted. Other than replacing a leaking cylinder they required nothing else over their lifetime. They had @ 20% left at my last inspection. They were the original shoes and had I not sold it , I would have changed them finally. Not bad for 10+ years of New England winters and 180k miles of hauling and snowplowing .

 

I've owned '79, '85, '94, '02, '11 Toyota pickups and have never worn out a set of rear drum brake shoes, all these with well over 100k when sold (the '85 had 265k when sold).
The '19 (wife's) and my '20 may last my lifetime at this rate.

Front pads were changed out around 75k (although my '05 Tundra at 73k is showing only half the front pads worn through at present).

Good luck!

.

 

Thanks everyone! Will definitely open them up and take a peek. Adjusting them was concerning me but it doesn’t sound too complicated. Appreciate the tips!