test rear drum auto adjusters

I absolutely hate the rear drum brakes on these trucks. They seem to loosen up over time somewhat such that the brake pedal gets softer, and the initial braking response is less than ideal. And, yes, I use the parking brake, that is supposed to perform the auto adjust, every time I park the truck.

They never get totally loose to where the parking brake won't hold so it seems the adjusters work somewhat, but maybe not all the time?? I have manually adjusted the brakes several times and it helps but is only temporary.

Has anyone ever tested this function? I am thinking of pulling the drums and getting a helper to cycle the parking brake, which I believe should get you one click on the adjuster every time. I want to see if this is working... and if not, figure out why. Maybe need to disassemble the components then clean them, lube them, lube friction points, etc. I dunno.

I really need to do a disc conversion. Dammit.

 

Have you disassembled the adjuster, cleaned and lightly lubed the threads? The star should turn pretty smoothly / freely, and most times, by the time the shoes need replacing, they don't.

Because most folks never service the hardware (front or rear) during the life span of the pads / shoes.

@Jimmyh any other ideas?

 

No, I haven't lubed them... yet. But they turn pretty easy when I adjust them manually.

And the reason these are serviced so rarely is that the shoes don't wear out... partly due to being on the rear and partly because they get loose enough that they essentially do nothing. I have had my drums off a few times to inspect them, last time maybe at 100k miles, and they still had plenty of material left. LOL.

 

Make it an annual event, front and rear. If you live in snow/salt or drive muddy spots offroad, I'd do it 2x a year. Servicing the mechanisms is independent of dealing with wear items.

 

Easier to manually adjust them a few times a year. Takes only 20 minutes or so. But I will inspect them again soon, do the test I described above, and disassemble/lube them if needed. I am currently at 124k miles. Did I say I HATE drum brakes. The 4th gens had better have discs or I will not be a repeat customer.

 

I use my parking brake every time I park. That seems to do a fair job of keeping the adjusters “close”. I haven’t adjusted mine in 6 years.

 

Just a good cleaning and lube should do all you need. I'm with @TnShooter on this my 2012 works as well as it did new and I have never had the need to adjust them even after ten years.

 

So do I. This is really gradual so I suspect a lot of folks who claim they never need to adjust their rear brakes might just be getting used to it. That's what happens to me until one day I think about and see the extra travel in the parking brake... and once on a road trip when my GF noted how the brakes didn't work as well as her car. May also be some other characteristics of the brake systems in Tacomas that make this more of an issue. I never had such issues in my old long gone POS S10 with drums. But that had the other style auto adjusters that worked whist braking in reverse. Maybe those are better... IDK.

This is my single major complaint with my truck, that I otherwise love.

 

Same here. My brake pedal sinks to the bottom gradually as the adjusters go out of adjustment.

 

My pedal doesn't go quite that far but it does get uncomfortably low. It seems to get to a stable point that is still far too loose for my liking. So maybe my adjusters are sort of working and for some reason just can't make the shoes as snug as I believe they need to be.

But then the official Toyota procedure that says to adjust them 15 clicks loose from a locked up position also seems too loose, IMO. Maybe that assumes the auto adjusters would snug them up some more as you use the PB? But IDK.

When I adjust them manually I take them up to the point where I can just begin to hear some light rubbing but still turn the wheel easily by hand. I will take mine apart and lube it all up sometime and see if that helps the adjusters. Did I say I hate drum brakes. Oh, right, I did. But it bears repeating. LOL.

 

I adjust mine until I hear them drag also.
I find it a pain to just adjust them Out, let alone back in.
You need to push the “locking bar” in with a small screw driver and then back them off.

I just adjust them until I hear it drag, but still pretty easy to turn.
They won’t drag long. So far, I haven’t had a problem doing it this way.
It’s the way I was taught, so I’ve always done it that way.

 

That's how I was taught, too. It's actually pretty easy to adjust either way if you pull the wheels off. I just chock the front wheels, jack the rear up by the pumpkin, and then remove the rear wheels. Pop a couple jack stands under the frame for safety. Then you can get at the plugs and adjusters from the wheel well without crawling under and even get that second tool in there to depress the lever if you need to.