Burning smell? Also brake question

I changed my transmission fluid and now I get a burning smell from the engine bay. Smells like burnt rubber but a stranger smell. Anyone have this happen before?

Also cleaned out my drum brakes and now my brake light is on, and the drivers side seems to be sticking again. Any advice on that?

 

Dont mean to be a dick or anything, but it sounds like the repairs/maintenance didnt go well

As far as the transmission goes, if you spilled fluid or have a leak that's burning on the exhaust, that could be your smell. Or you didnt add enough/too much fluid and your clutches are slipping and roasting themselves. Or wrong fluid. Or you serviced a neglected high mileage transmission and washed away all the clutch material floating in the fluid and the clutches are roasting themselves. Assuming your smell is related to the transmission work.

If your rears drums are sticking, you need to disassemble, clean, and lube the contact points. Assuming the backing plate isn't gouged or beyond reuse. If theyre still sticking, you could have something going on with the hydraulic part of the system. Or the drums could be warped or something.

 

The transmission seems to drive fine, no slipping at all experienced.
From everything I read and everyone I talked too the said to drain and fill will only help as long as I don’t totally flush. The fluid was low before the drain/fill so it could possibly be leaking somewhere more than what I see. There’s one leak that was there before and I still see it.

What would you recommend lubing the brakes with? E brake seems to stick on that side so I’m guessing that could be it.

 

Almost anything thick but non petroleum based so it doesnt soak the shoes. White lithium, antisieze, etc. Wouldnt use grease for front end stuff or wheel bearing grease though

And it needs to be anywhere theres metal to metal contact

 

Spilled oil can be the cause of smell. If it doesn’t go away after a few days of driver, to burn off the smell, I would look for other problems.

I didn’t even know our 1st gen had a brake light sensor or are you talking about the emergency brake light? I would disable the brakes and clean them again like someone said. Use brake cleaner and brake lube.

 

I did spill a bit of the transmission fluid when the funnel popped out of the dipstick. Going to try and clean all the oil off the engine.
The brake light did come on this morning, looks like the fluid is a bit low so I’m going to top that off. Got the light off of my last truck. I’ll pick up some brake line while I’m at it

 

Good idea. My corolla had that same issue and it turned out it was a little low on brake fluid. I first thought it was my e brake hanging.

 

I had a burning smell it wasn’t rubber though. Couldn’t put my finger on it. About a week ago my radiator cracked. Put in a new radiator and the smell is gone. I don’t know if it’s your radiator but mine lasted about 18 years.

 

It could be. The smell isn’t quite rubber. It’s different, nothing I’ve smelled before. I changed the coolant out at the same time as the ATF. Added more brake fluid today and the light is now off, one problem gone

 

brake light on could be low brake fluid in the reservoir or the fluid level sensor.

stuck drums/brake, how far out does the e brake handle pull? As the return springs for the rear brakes age they loose their tension and the auto adjuster over adjusts. The first sign of this is the e brake handle requires less and less pull to set the parking brake. Should be 22 ish clicks.

 

Now I'm going to go check mine. 22ish? Like 22 +/- 5 clicks?

 

22 is too high...should be 12-18 clicks, there's a write up on here for the e-brake adjustment that states that. I'll see if I can find it

 

12-18 clicks according to Toyota...per this write up anyhow.

http://www.lieblweb.com/ebrakeadjustment.html


I've always found that when I adjust mine to 15 or so it feels way better and holds the truck well. 20 or more and it feels loose and sloppy and doesn't work well.

 

I stand corrected... thank you. that is what is so great about this sight.

 

I’m at 45 clicks. Needs some adjusting

 

Great. Another thing for me to check and mess with. Sometimes I feel like if it’s not broken don’t mess with it or you’ll make it worst

 

Mine gets loose pretty easily from using it on steep hills offroad...I usually tighten it up every oil change. It's really simple to do, takes 5 min with two hand wrenches (12mm I think...it's it that link I posted earlier)

Although I have noticed that the more I tighten it, the less room I have to do so each time...I think my cable is getting stretched out from over use. Now that is probably going to be a pain in the ass to fix, lol

 

I adjusted it the way the instructions showed. It tightened the cable leading to the brakes but not the handle. Must have done something wrong...on the bright side I lubed the brakes and there is no more sticking