Crazy brake problems on my 05 TRD

Bought a high mileage truck with a bad diff, swapped it out from salvage. Seemed fine,thought I would change rear shoes months later.
I've been fighting brakes since. Won't stop, hard pedal, changed master cylinder, no better.

 

It sounds like a sign of a bad brake booster.
Did this start right after the rear differential swap?
Or do you know if this was a problem before the swap?

 

Booster checks out.
It started after I replaced shoes.
Checked and double checked rear brakes, adjusted twice. Even if I screwed up the back not sure if it it would make all the brakes this bad. Bled every thing. It's driving me nuts.

 

How did you check the booster?
There’s been cases where people have gotten over zealous when bleeding the brakes.
If you press the pedal into far and too hard, it can damage the booster.

I’m not saying this is what you did, but anytime you press the pedal in further than it normal goes, things can happen. Especially when vehicle get older.

 

Pumped up with engine off, start and it goes down as it should.
I have heard you can damage a new master cylinder if the plunger is push in to far bench bleeding.
I must have screwed up rear shoes...that's what started it all.
It had typical hard pedal before, but it stopped.

 

Thx

 

It sounds like a bad booster to me as well. I'm unaware of any possible issues where drum brakes don't work after being replaced. I'm also unaware of "a typical hard pedal" on a Tacoma. The brakes being bled incorrectly is pretty typical on a DIY Tacoma ABS system but the pedal wouldn't be hard after that, it would be mushy and go to the floor. Maybe pull the drums off and post pics.

 

Think I will pull the drums and look one more time.
Without a pressure bleed tool which bleeding method would suggest, I have a vacuum pump.

 

If the pedal feels hard it’s probably not air although it’s worth a shot at bleeding again. I always had a helper pump the brakes never had an issue except I don’t always have a helper.
I’ve had great results with this easy and quick. https://www.speedibleed.com/products/brake-bleeding-kit-pro/k800-toyota-lexus-brake-bleeder-kit.html

 

I modified my brakes a lot but I read threads where TW members had trouble bleeding the brakes because of the ABS so I limped it to a shop to bleed the brakes for me. Some sort of computer/program that cycles the brakes at certain time intervals. It worked fantastic after that.

 

When you say hard pedal, you mean hard to push or doesn’t move like stepping on a rock? When you look again check if the wheels will spin before you take it off. Pull one drum, get a helper to GENTLY press the brake pedal just a little bit. You should see the wheel cylinders push out causing the shoes to push out. Put that drum back on and try the same on the other side. Then try to find a picture and make sure you put all parts back on correctly. It’s easy to make a mistake and have something not on right. When you adjusted, you did the correct procedure? Something like tighten then back off 17 clicks? I’m thinking maybe you got the adjusters too tight, if so getting the drums off will be near impossible.