Rear Drum Brakes

Had intended to replace the rear brake shoes. Been 40K miles since I checked the brakes after I bought it, figured it was about time.
Removed the drums to see the brake shoes just about as they were 40K ago. Everything was caked in brake dust.
Cleaned everything up, sanded the glaze off the shoes and most importantly, clean, loosen up and lube the self adjusters. I think the sticky self adjusters weren't working so the rear brakes were only working for an ebrake.
If you want 100% out of the drum brakes you have to manually adjust them periodically.
My 90 Toyota pickup was the same way. Two sets of front pads for every set of rear shoes. If you didn't manually adjust the rear brakes, you'd get 100K miles out of them.

 

Yep, they last a long damned time. I'm still on stock shoes at 138,000 miles and I use my parking brake religiously. I adjust mine out every year and while you have the drums off, if you remove that ridge on the drums that makes them hard to remove, it makes future checks and maintenance easier. I use a flap wheel on my angle grinder.
Make sure you get the drums back on the side you took them off of. If not, they'll get pretty hot while they are re-bedding.

 

I have 270,000 and have never changed them. Maybe I should take a peek. Ebrake works fine but I imagine they aren’t engaging during braking

 

If your ebrake is high and tight there's a good chance they're fine. If its low and close to the floor they could probably use an adjustment.

If no one has looked in there for 270,000 miles you should get them checked out

 

I am curious how often you’ve had to change the e brake cable itself? I have an 03 first gen and I’ve had to replace that cable probably 4 times due to stretch. Even though it’s a MT I use my e brake religiously but maybe I should adjust my star wheels more often?

I’ve changed pads on the front discs 2x and only changed my rear shoes one time over 165k miles but that’s probably because I drive like an old man.

 

The rear brakes are usually overlooked and not touched but all owners should pull the drums off and look back there especially if in rust prone areas as the parking brake pivots and adjusters will need cleaning/greasing to stay fully functional. The use of the parking brake is how the adjuster is "stepped/racketed out to keep the shoes closer to the drums. By 180k mine were a mess (did shoes once before) so complete rebuild drums, shoes, springs, and wheel cylinders and bleeding - sure work better. Plus, the parking brake cable can be adjusted in the cab to tighten it up if needed.

 

This is a timely post.

I've got my 2012 on the lift right now changing all fluids. I'm going to pull the wheels and check the pads/shoes before power flushing the brake fluid.

Finished changing the front/rear diff fluid, transfer case fluid and transmission (MT) last night.

 

The reason the rear shoes last so long is they aren't doing anything. The ebrake adjustment system is weak. The adjuster is a piece of sheet metal. No brakes that are working last 150K miles.

 

When you use your parking brake, don't crank the piss out of it if you don't have to. I usually park in a fairly flat area and just a little tug will do.

 

if your ebrake is working... your rear brakes are working when you push the pedal (cleaning, inspecting and adjusting should be done here and there for optimal performance regardless). There is just SO MUCH shoe surface area compared to front pads and lots less of braking force needed from the rears by nature of being in the rear that they last for a LONG time.

 

When the rear brakes are fully adjusted, there is a clear and noticable difference in braking that fades away over time. The self adjusters work, but not to the degree of manually adjusting the brakes. Drum brakes are from a bygone era. The disc/drum performance difference is large.

 

Not trying to be obtuse here, but why do they still use them on the big trucks, like semis and dump trucks?

 

For a truck like the tacoma that 99.9% of the time doesnt have anything in the bed, drums work great, long lasting, low maintenance. At spirited off road speeds often times find myself putting the truck in 4hi to simply lock the front and rear axles together because THE REAR BRAKES TOO GOOD and will lock up (without abs on) BEFORE the front and 4hi doesnt allow this.

Now loaded is a different story but within the limits of the truck itself (in the bed or towing) the drums work just fine... and if you are towing weights that you are having trouble stopping comfortably, you should have trailer brakes

 

Cost. Disc brakes are available and are the premium option on commercial trucks.

 

Agreed, and part of that is that the drum brakes have so much surface area, they simply last longer in a heavy duty application. This too is all tied into cost or cost of operation.
I don't mind the drums, but I'm not a 'spirited' driver.

 

Drum brakes were designed when 40 ton vehicles did not regularly travel at 80 mph.

 

When I pulled my drums and checked over the weekend, I found the p/s adjuster frozen. I was able to get it freed up and turning easier and got the drums shoes adjusted properly.

This is on a 2012 with 130,000 miles. It was pretty obvious the drums had never been off the truck. I had to buy the correct bolts, thread them in and use them to press as hard as I dared AND pound on the drums with a punch and ballpeen hammer at the same time to work them off the axles.

The drums and shoes were still in pretty good shape though. I'd say they'll go several 10,000s of thousands more miles...and the d/s was adjusted up just fine. Actually couldn't see a lot of difference in the shoe wear side-to-side.

How the truck has been driven is going to make a huge difference on how long the shoes last.

 

With the rear brakes properly adjusted, the brakes engage when the brake pedal is depressed about an inch. When the rears go out of adjustment and basically only the front brakes are doing anything, the brake pedal goes halfway to the floor.

 

When I have my drums off, I grind off that little ridge on the inner edge, where the shoes have worn in. I just us a flap wheel on my angle grinder. It makes them MUCH easier to take off in the future.

 

Had to have the drums resurfaced on 21 Limited with only 16K mi. Never had this problem before with the other Tacos. The invoice listed the new diameters of each drum (10.023" and 10.019") after resurfacing. Given that the diameter increases after use or machining, what is the limit before replacing the drums?