Drum Brake Star Adjuster Lever (revisited)

Doing my drum brakes. Passenger side star adjuster clicks like expected when adjusting the brake pads to have slight drag on the drum.
Driver side star adjuster does not click. Not sure if the adjuster clip thing that engages the star behind the adjuster rod is actually supposed to click on to the star? Or is it supposed to sit slightly behind the star? Am I supposed to hear clicking or is it OK if it's not clicking? (Passenger side adjuster audibly and clearly clicks when adjusting the star screw.)





(revisited)

 

Yes it should click. The clicking sound comes from the lever ratcheting to the next notch on the star adjustment wheel. It's like a ratchet wrench: it can only turn one way: tighten. The lever is what keeps it from loosening. So if it's not clicking, it's not working properly.

 

If the lever is not engaging with the star, how do I fix that? What could cause this issue?

 

There are a lot of good videos on youtube of how the parking brake bell crank works and that's most likely the culprit. It's had to say without being in front of the truck.

 

The brake hardware changes a little over the years. But I had the same issue when I did my shoes last month along with axle seals. Here's what the issue was on my 06, may or may not apply to your 04, but you are a double cab so it might. The adjuster lever is not engaging the adjuster link star wheel because it might not be installed correctly.

There is a little tab on the adjuster lever that must be placed into the fork of the star adjuster link. The adjuster lever and spring can be installed with the tab behind the adjuster fork, and everything seems to fit, but installing it behind the fork instead of in the fork creates a small gap between the level arm and the wheel, so that the lever arm does not contact and rotate the wheel when the parking brake is applied. Hope this helps.

 

That was my issue! It fixed it and is now clicking as expected! Thank you

Nevermind.. Issue came back. Continued below

 

Glad it worked.

 

(revisited)

Hello folks, so I'm having the same issue here, turns out ensuring the little lever tab is in the star adjuster fork was not the fix I thought it was, sorry Remington. I noticed the issue a couple of months ago when my drums were again out of adjustment. I've been periodically crawling under the truck and manually adjusting the star adjuster with a flathead through the wheel plate's little backdoor port to get the brake shoes tight against the drums. If I don't do this, I'd only have the front discs for braking. I've been doing this method whenever my parking brake no longer holds the truck in Drive as an indicator of when it needs adjusting again.

Now I've finally had some time to take off the wheels and drums and check it out again to diagnose the real problem but I can't figure it out. It appears that when the shoes are off the truck and put together, the lever properly engages the star adjuster. However, once installed, the lever becomes easily disengaged, almost as if it's being pried downward and not held straight as expected. Once disengaged, it's simply held downward and away from the star, rendered completely useless.

I noticed that the distance between the bottom points of each shoe seems to affect the adjuster lever positioning. When the shoes are off and put together, the distance between the two bottom points of the shoes is about 1.5", but when installed onto the axle the shoes are pried apart about 2.5" which cranks the star adjuster lever down and disengaged. When installed, this results in any sort of star adjuster movement to disengage the lever and the lever snaps out of place, losing contact.

 

Pics of the shoes put together and measurement of the bottom points of the shoes. Anything assembled incorrectly here?

 

Measurement of the distance between shoes' bottom points when installed back onto axle.

 

Video 1, showing the shoes installed.

 

Video 2, showing the problem while uninstalled.

 

Bumping this up. Can anyone assist?

 

I thought the metal tab that engages the star wheel was located on the front, I'll have to go double check it.

 

Here's some pics from my pain of adjusting the mechanism...

https://www.tundras.com/threads/too...kes-via-the-star-adjuster.95912/#post-2432265

 

Disclaimer - I do not have a 1st gen. But all other toyotas that I've had with drum brakes have had that tab on the outboard side, not behind the starwheel. If it's on the outboard side, you can use a small screwdriver though the access hole in the backing plate to push it away from the starwheel to release the starwheel adjustment to loosen the shoes. If it's in the inboard or back side, you could not push that away from the starwheel to loosen the shoes.

 

Jack's pic confirm that you have installed it incorrectly

 

Very interesting. I see the adjuster lever on the outside of the star wheel in Jack's picture, and in Tundra2's subsequent video I see his adjuster on the outside of the star wheel as well.
In contrast, in remington351's picture earlier in this thread, it shows his adjuster lever behind the star adjuster:




In the pictures/video from Jack's thread with the lever outside of the star adjuster, the brake shoe doesn't have the necessary hole/pin to install the adjuster lever in the first place, while my brake shoes and remington351's brake shoes have the hole/pin for install the adjuster lever on that side.

Also, in order to move the adjuster lever to the other side to rest over the parking brake crank, I'd also have to flip around the star wheel and main adjoining springs so the mechanism will engage.




Which one is actually correct? Do drum brake designs differ between my 2004 double cab vs. another year or access cab?

 

My adjuster is outboard on passenger side and inboard on drivers, iirc.

edit: this is wrong

 

Since you have the same year and model as me, do you happen to have any pictures on hand?

 

This is one of those reasons you only attack one brake drum side at at time and use the other for reference. If you can't flip the shoes to work in place (front -> back and back -> front) you may have to switch the assembly with the shoes on the other side of the truck. There should be plenty of pics on this site to reference. Some may also exist in the Field Service Manual (FSM).

 

Yeah I do and actually I was wrong: both of mine are inboard. Also, my driver's side doesn't click and I have been meaning to take the drum off to inspect it. First photo is driver's side. Yes I just rescued this truck from the bottom of the sea (aka PA/NY).



I have a few theories: one is that maybe the aftermarket hardware isn't great and so the rube goldberg parking brake mechanism just doesn't work as a result. The second is that my drums are done and so I can't get the shoe adjustment right as a result. The third is that I'm an idiot.

 

Interesting. So it looks like it comes down to the year of the vehicle to see how the assembly was put together. I would definitely reference the FSM if that's the case.

 

Gosh its been so long, But I seem to think my drivers side click lever was inboard, and my manual had minimal/no description. Almost all the videos/ pics you find online are passenger side, and click lever outboard. You would have to reverse the shoes, and the star wheels to do it wrong. You would have to follow a previous repair to follow wrong. Toatally possible. My last dissasembly of drivers the click wheel was inboard. and was still working, and parking brake worked, and the pads were totally fried, if it was wrong, the pads wouldn't wear. I broke a stud on pass side today, so I will remind and compare. But the inboard lever adjusted my drivers side out until almostt all brake pad was used. Wouldn't do that if inboard was wrong.

 

I was reading those 1000 or so pages the other day in the what section. I remember this guy snapped his equalizer bolt and then another guy figured out his brake adjustment problem was at the equalizer being seized. Something about worn bushings and rust???

 

Hard to flip the whole mechanism imho because you would immediately see that the star ratchet doesn't line up with the adjustment hole on the back of the assembly.

 

I seem to have solved the issue for now. After tinkering with the whole mechanism for another hour I couldn't figure out what was wrong, having looked at videos and pictures and compared my shoe assembly with everything else, it looked like I had assembled it correctly no matter what.
I also bought new NAPA parts, using their prepackaged drum brake install kits as I hoped to remedy this un-engaged lever issue with a new lever. NAPA's star adjuster levers themselves looked bent (both L and R) and flimsy so I elected to keep the OEM lever and figure out what else could be wrong. However, I did use the new star adjuster itself from the NAPA parts kit.
The star adjuster from NAPA was the issue. The fork holding the star adjuster assembly, into which the adjuster lever tab fits into, was not fully engaging with the brake shoe slot. I.e. the fork could not fully insert into the slot of the brake shoe. Looks like that miniscule amount of missing fork-to-slot insertion was enough to cause my problem. Having swapped back to the OEM star adjuster, the lever seems to click and adjust and hold the star wheel correctly after reassembly.




Lesson learned: stick with OEM. Do not buy or use the NAPA drum brake repair kit.
Links of product to avoid buying:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/UP_89358
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/UP_89357

Remaining question: Why didn't the lever click the star adjuster before I tried using the NAPA star adjuster?
I don't know, maybe improper initial assembly? I'll be keeping an eye on this in the coming days to ensure proper star adjuster lever engagement and parking brake not falling out of adjustment.

 

Hey good sleuthing. I also got the NAPA kit. Sad/funny that it seems to be the cause of both of our issues. I know I kept at least one old star adjuster. With any luck maybe I still have both of them.

I also noticed you were using the oem lever with the NAPA ratchet. Maybe that caused an issue as well? I think someone mentioned that the tooth count on the ratchet changed over the years.

 

That's the risk everyone faces with aftermarket parts. Glad you found the cause.