Help with brake shudder

A couple of clicks may not be enough. I thought I had it right doing it manually, but after I took all the slack out of the parking brake system I got at least another dozen clicks out of the auto adjuster and that was when I noticed the difference.

 

Yeah I did 4 more just now. I bet you're right. I'll drive it in a bit and see if anything changed.

 

I only had to do about 3 clicks on mine. I knew from the week prior that my drums were pretty close to the shoes when cleaning the brakes and doing re-install. The tolerance was fairly tight.

Your drums and shoes could be farther apart, thus the need for more clicks.

 

I don't want to sound like a broken record....but if you just take the slack out of the parking brakes you don't have to mess around with manually adjusting the adjuster gear and trying to figure out if you have gone too far or not. The auto adjuster will move the brakes to within one click of contact just by cycling the parking brake, if the parking brake cable is tight enough that it 'bottoms out' the brake system, before the pedal bottoms out and runs out of cable to pull.

This is not just my personal theory but how it actually tells you to adjust the brakes in the Toyota service manual and has the advantage that it will KEEP readjusting your brakes for you even as the pads wear.

Its also, IMO, a lot easier to adjust the parking brake cables than it is to access the adjuster gear, which I find to be a PITA to access in such a way that you can actually see what you are doing.

As far as I can tell that access port only exists so you can BACK OFF the adjuster gear for removing old brakes and toyota never designed the brakes to be manually tightened in the first place.

Again, I'm not saying it won't work to adjust them on your own, it will, but I think it's the hard way to do it, as was mentioned, the tolerance is really very small as to get the system to work properly you need the pads to be a fraction of a millimeter away from the rotors without actually touching, on a system you can't actually see while adjusting.

 

https://www.powerstop.com/drilled-vs-slotted-rotors-what-is-better/

 

Its all good. Only reason for me going thru the peek-a-boo was because I didn’t have your spec drawings and info prior. I have those specs saved. You need to pull the wheels and drums off to adjust per the specs and its something I look forward to when I have some time. Right now my brakes are great so no emergency to adjust the parking brake.

I look forward to a fully operational parking brake and, by default, rear brakes that self adjust as designed.

 

Would you say my parking brake cable is too loose?

This is it when not engaged. It holds like a champ but I'm wondering if I should adjust.

 

That was about how mine looked before I adjusted it.

 

That's how mine looks, and it doesnt work. Like, not even a little bit.

 

Can someone please post up the greasing points specs for the rear drums. Locations and type grease. Thank you.

 

Mine works like a champ but I'd still like to tighten in.

 

This page shoes the grease points and grease type for those points. (The Key in the lower left corner explains)

"That's how mine looks, and it doesnt work. Like, not even a little bit."

Same. Until I got the auto adjuster working my parking brake would not even hold the truck still on flat ground in drive.

I believe if the brake adjuster has been manually tightened the parking brake will still work with a loose cable....but a loose cable will not automatically adjust the adjuster properly. If that makes sense.

According to the service manual the access plug is not for adjusting the brakes tight, but for backing them off so the drum can be removed as with old brakes they will wear a groove into the drum and the brake shoes will actually be slightly inset into the drum so you can't remove it even with the brake off.

The only way the service manual says to adjust the brakes is by setting the cable properly and then using it to adjust the auto adjuster until it stops. And I can confirm if you actually set your cable properly this will in fact result in automatically adjusting the system to give you functional parking brakes and in my case this improve braking all around since that same adjuster also adjusts the rear hydraulic brakes.

And honestly, think it's easier to get the cable right so it does it for you than it is to fiddle with the adjuster with trial and error.

 

Copper grease on all contact points with the backing plate is what I remember.

 

Thank you. Lots of little greaseable areas that probably never get serviced even when a shop replaces the brake drums. Per your groove in the drum comment: Mine has that little groove from years of use. Lots of moving part on this type of job. I’ll plan on an entire day trying to make the parking brake work while servicing the greaseable areas.

I see that the brake cylinder needs greasing as well. How does one do that without getting into breeding the brake lines? Remove drums and push brake pedal till the pistons flare out? Grease and release.

 

Also, I wonder if my adjuster greasing would help? Seemed like the first click I did a few weeks ago took ample leverage with the flat head. Almost like it was stuck.

 

Looking at it I think you would have to pull the pistons all the way out to grease them everyplace that is indicated as the actual inner seal looks like its a greased part.

I didn't do this as I was replacing the cylinders with brand new, pre-greased ones for my brake job.

Bleeding however is pretty easy. I used an $8 harbor freight kit and had no problem. It only gets annoying if you let the brake fluid level fall too low in the master cylinder and get air into the start of your brake line rather than just having to bleed it out of the end. (I have made this mistake before on other vehicles and it takes forever to bleed them in that case)

I actually popped my pistons all the way out this time on accident by pumping the pedal with the rotors off, which was annoying as I had to remove the shoes I had just put on to get the pistons lined up and pushed back into the cylinders.

Even if you aren't going to take them all apart and grease them its always a good idea to pull the boot back at least and check for brake fluid leakage.

 

Just put your grease gun on the bleeder valve and squirt a few shots in there. That should lube it up good.

 

Sounds dangerous.

 

I'll add pumping some grease into the bell crank boots, especially if you're in a area where they salt the roads. I had to replace both of mine since they were corroded into a lump. New ones are still good after a few years filled with grease.

 

Lithium Soap Base Glycol will be purchased soon. Thanks for the tips guys.

 

Started the Lithium Soap Based Glycol Grease quest and it seems like its the same as the 90w Rear Diff Oil quest... a no can find.

In addition, I dont want to inject anything into the rear cylinders (via bleeder valve) if they are working proper. Nor, take apart the rear shoe assy just to grease the other spec’d areas with the readily available (high temp grease).

My main concern is adjusting these bell cranks adjusting bolts and then the connecting cable(s) such that the adjuster star is self adjusting and thus making the parking brake work as it should!

 

https://www.ebay.com/i/323656335033?chn=ps

But I agree. I wouldn't tear apart working brakes just to grease them. New cylinders are very cheap if your ever go bad.

And I wouldn't add ANYTHING but brake fluid to the brake hydraulic system. Brake fluid is carefully formulated to do its job, which is why its brake fluid and not just ATF or oil or anything else and I wouldn't want to mess with that.