Rear wheel locked up after rolling 10 feet and smoking front wheel!

Wonder if you have a damaged wheel speed sensor causing spurious ABS activation but somehow not enough to trip a warning light monitor. Best way to diagnose would be to hook up an OBD2 scanner with live data (I use a no-name OBD2 bluetooth dongle with Torque Pro Android app). Jack up the truck and monitor the four wheel speeds while spinning each tire by hand.

 

Check for gear oil contamination on the shoes

 

Funny, I haven't thought to use my OBD scanner. I have a faulty ABS sensor. It's been bad for years.

The only day I had real issues, I had set the brake on the trail and it froze. I got it to free up by rocking it. Then it locked up several times on the drive out. My wife and infant daughter were with me and I just wanted to get them home safely.

 

I can't get the drums off. I stripped the threads, and a big effing hammer (3lbs) didn't do the trick. You're thinking seal issues, I assume?

 

Yea axle seals seep slowly. My shoes got sticky at the LR corner, I started hearing clunking when the brakes applied/ released, progressed to locking up in winter. My driveway is an incline and that doesn't help

 

Most generic OBD2 readers won't read ABS codes because ABS doesn't affect emissions

 

Generic OBD2 readers should still show the four wheel speed parameters, which are more useful for diagnosing @Dianna's problem.

 

You stripped both on both sides? Drill and tap?

 

Interesting thought on the axle seal leaking. I had them replaced but that was probably 50k miles ago.

 

I'll just torch and hammer, and buy new drums. I'm sure I have other issues once I get in there.

 

I would assume gear oil is flammable if exposed to high heat from a torch.

 

I saw this happen long ago to a friend, one of the front flex hoses was weak and occasionally would not release the pressure thus locking up the wheel. I think this might be worth checking especially if you had issues bleeding the fronts..was that on both or just this side?

May not be it but cheap fix if so, and if they're old enough you might even think of it as preventative maintainence

 

Thanks, I'll check the hoses but my issue was bleeding the rear, nipples were filled with gunk and when I removed them to clean them it introduced a lot of air into the system. I didn't have any help and did the best I could with the mitivac.

 

Gotcha. Even at that, the front could be intermittently collapsing perhaps.

 

Didn't you say the left front was smoking? And the right rear was locking up or something? That's why I mentioned the master cylinder. Jack up the front and spin each front wheel, see if one is tight.

If the fronts are fine, one of the rears locking up could be as simple as a broken spring or clip jamming up inside the drum

If you have the space and 4 jackstands get the entire truck in the air and start spinning wheels around. Get the drums off and look inside. You'll probably find the problem if you look

 

If I were forced to guess, this would be it. There’s plenty of little parts, plenty possibilities for something to go wrong.

The little retainer pins that go through the backing plate & shoe, held by a spring and 2 cups. Those pins are so small, they can get scored, rust, and snap in two. Quite often, you’ll see a little gouge in the pin. That’s from the shoe rubbing on it and wearing. If you reuse that pin, next time you replace the shoes, the gouge will be deeper, sometimes the pin will bend slightly at the gouge from the tension on it. Sometimes the pin will snap. Now instead of the shoes moving out to contact the drum braking surface and in to release, they’ll want to move outward towards the lug nuts.

Here’s a decent write up with pictures to reference.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/damaged-brake-backing-plate-rear-drum-brakes-gen-2.712245/

 

I raised the front end and checked the wheel bearings for play and there was none. I replaced them about 25K miles ago. I don't think that either issue is related to one another. I left my truck parked for a couple days because I planned on limping it to the dealer to investigate the front end. I only moved it to clear the snow from my driveway.

 

Update, it was a balmy 40 degrees here so I was able to pull the drums off. The side that was locked up looked perfect but it did look like a chunk of shoe was missing from the top of the rear shoe. The other side appears to have a very slow leak because the dust appeared to have some moisture in it. I am going to make a new post asking about that, how to tell if the rear seal or a wheel cylinder is leaking. After putting everything back together and taking a ride around the block, it seems fine now. I'm still baffled about the issue with the front but at least I can drive it to the dealer now for them to diagnose. Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

I've never seen a shoe lining break off like that.

Weird.

 

Are you sure nothing fell out when the drum came off? Something could have been jammed against that shoe and chipped off the piece of friction material.

What about the smoking front left? Is that still happening?