So I love my truck to death, but the one thing that really irritates me is the long brake pedal travel. The brakes themselves feel and work great -but there is a large "dead zone" before they engage. No other car I've driven feels like this. My co-worker's identical 4Runner, however, is similar so maybe it's what is considered normal. I Dunno.

What I've done:
Bled brakes at the calipers (not the ABS module)
Installed new brake lines
Checked adjusters (I think they work just fine - one click on the e-brake and the shoes begin to rub on the drums ever so slightly)
Adjusted e-brake adjusters at the axle
Measured drum inner diameter (296mm; within spec)

It
The only other thing I can think of is taking it to a shop and bleeding the ABS module. Any explanations or suggestions?

What year truck ?
How many miles ?
Could be one or more of the brakes hoses are weak and expanding under pressure.
Have you checked the under dash pedal play adjustments ?

It's a 1997 with 163k miles. New SS brake lines. I should add that it doesn't feel squishy like expansion or air compressing, it feels like there isn't any resistance - as if the brake shoes had too much distance from the drum and has a lot of free travel. Is that just how drum brakes are?
No, haven't looked at the pedal are but will take a look. Also, you gave me an idea. The FSM a spec called "brake pedal reserve distance" (2.83") Google tells me that that's the distance between the floor board and the pedal with the pedal down (brakes on). I guess that should tell me if the pedal travel is in spec.

pull the ebrake all the way, and then check the pedal. does it feel better? higher?

im betting the rear brakes are out of adjustment.

You could check the brake pedal adjustment, maybe someone installed a new master cylinder sometime in the past? At the very least you can adjust it a little bit to take some of that "dead spot" out (don't adjust to much or the brakes will always be partially engaged and cause issues.

I had this problem after I replaced the brakes on both my Tacoma and my 4runner. I found that my bleed job on both was less than satisfactory. I always work alone on my cars, so I bought some speed bleeders for both of them.

Brakes are night and day better after re-bleeding. Not saying you did a poor job, but it may be worth a second try at bleeding.

Thanks so far for the advice.

Nevada: The truck is non-op at the moment so hitting the brakes without the booster working is meaningless - I'll try it when I get it running. I do see what you're saying I think. If it does improve, that might be the problem. I did get the rear up on stands last week and pulled up the e-brake 1 click - it did engage the brakes ever so slightly. Does that prove that the adjusters are OK?

BlackworksInc: As far as I can tell, there is a normal amount of free play. I can get rid of it by adjusting the lamp switch towards the pedal, but I can tell it won't make much of a difference. Is there something else I'm missing?

I've always wanted to try speed bleeders but at $15/ea x 4, I'd rather bother my wife every year or two. Are you saying that they work better than the traditional 2-person method? If so, it will be worth trying.

Not the lamp switch, the rod that is connected to the brake pedal and goes into the master cylinder. There is an adjustment for those.

If everything else in the system is okay, I'd give a shot to adjusting that some. Just be careful because you can over adjust it and cover the port in the master cylinder partially causing issues when the fluid heats up.

Speed bleeder work okay, I find them to be a decent option if you don't have another person around and it goes by faster than gravity bleeding.

Post Note-

Adding "@" infront of a user name "Mentions" them. i.e. @flyinbrick

you want it off when you check the pedal. so non-op is perfect.

how many clicks total do you get if you pull the ebrake all the way?


I would manually adjust the brakes up until you cant turn the tire, then back it off a few clicks. there should be just the slightest bit of drag.

Did you figure out what was wrong?

Welcome @stever1000

This is another 3-year old thread that probably won't be answered by the OP, but since you are having brake-related issues, you might best start a new thread referencing the posts/threads that have similarities to your issue and ask the current community for help.

What year/vehicle, exactly are your symptoms and what have you tried?