Rear passenger side tire/axle won't turn

T

T4RTahoe

New member
Hey there.

Having a new issue that started about an hour ago moving my car out of my driveway.

I engaged 4wd to get out of the snow in my driveway. My rear passenger side tire/axle has decided that it doesn't want to turn at all any more. My rear driver side will turn and so will my two front tires when engaged in 4wd.

I am able to engage and disengage from 4wd high and lo to 2wd, but unable to get the tire to turn in all three modes.

I recently bought some used 07' Tacoma rims for my 98' 4Runner and put my 265-75-16 snow tires on them. As far as I can see from looking under the car, there is no rubbing or issues with the new wheels and my snow tires and I haven't had any issues until today driving with them on over the last 5 days.

I did notice this morning before it started snowing that I felt more resistance than usual accelerating from a stop, so wondering if it is something to do with the axle.

My buddy who is a mechanic noticed that my rear driver side axle seal has a small leak while putting on my winter tires, but said that it was minimal and probably not worth worrying about.

Going to lift the rear axle tomorrow and see if I can get the tires to spin in 2wd and check for any signs of rubbing, friction, etc.

Any ideas on what could be going on? The only thing that comes to mind is that the drum brake or e-brake is locked up or the axle seal blew completely and has locked the axle.

Thanks for reading.
 
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sounds like the leaking rear axle seal has soaked the rear brake pads and they have swollen against the drums. try to back them off so they don't reach the drum. do both sides so you don't get yaw when you brake.
 
Drcoffee said:
sounds like the leaking rear axle seal has soaked the rear brake pads and they have swollen against the drums. try to back them off so they don't reach the drum. do both sides so you don't get yaw when you brake.
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The tire still spins on the side that has the leaking seal though. The leaking seal is back driver side. The rear passenger side is the axle/tire that won't turn.
 
Did you do a water crossing where water can enter the rear brakes? And left for few days with park brake pulled? Other than that I cannot think of anything else. Remove the wheel and tap the drum with a rubber hammer or a log. IF nothing helps you, use Two 12 mm 4-5 inch long bolts and slowly extract the drum out. NOTE: you may damage the brake shoe retaining clips and will need to replace.
 
nissanh said:
Did you do a water crossing where water can enter the rear brakes? And left for few days with park brake pulled? Other than that I cannot think of anything else. Remove the wheel and tap the drum with a rubber hammer or a log. IF nothing helps you, use Two 12 mm 4-5 inch long bolts and slowly extract the drum out. NOTE: you may damage the brake shoe retaining clips and will need to replace.
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No water crossings and no e brake. I'll give her the ol' rubber mallet tomorrow if nothing else works.
 
jametarne said:
sounds like the leaking rear axle seal has soaked the rear brake pads and they have swollen against the drums.
11a.jpg
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What's my best route of action(s) to temporarily fix this?
 
T4RTahoe said:
What's my best route of action(s) to temporarily fix this?
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You're asking a spambot. It just quoted Dr.coffee.

As he said, you need to back the shoes away from the drum, remove the drum, and see what you have to deal with.
 
Correct me if i am wrong guys, but i think this may be a case of over analyzing a non issue. His 1998 4runner has an open differential.

in snow especially, it would make sense that if one wheel is "slipping" then all the power would go to that wheel, causing the other wheel to just sit there.

Edit: I'm going on the assumption that the wheel is not locked up, but rather it just won't spin when in snow.
 
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Brveagle said:
Correct me if i am wrong guys, but i think this may be a case of over analyzing a non issue. His 1998 4runner has an open differential.

in snow especially, it would make sense that if one wheel is "slipping" then all the power would go to that wheel, causing the other wheel to just sit there.

Edit: I'm going on the assumption that the wheel is not locked up, but rather it just won't spin when in snow.
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I have studded snow tires on and have never had this issue in 7 years of Tahoe winters. This isn't the case unfortunately.
 
T4RTahoe said:
I have studded snow tires on and have never had this issue in 7 years of Tahoe winters. This isn't the case unfortunately.
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Sorry to hear. Like others have said, start simple. Pull wheel and drum off. Could be that you have snow/ice in the drum frozen causing the shoes to stick.
 
Got it unlocked finally. Got some warm water and mixed it with some isopropyl alcohol and sprayed the hell out of the drum and axle and it unlocked. I think either the drum or e-brake was jammed full of snow and ice and didn't want to budge yesterday.

Thanks for help guys.
 
T4RTahoe said:
Got it unlocked finally. Got some warm water and mixed it with some isopropyl alcohol and sprayed the hell out of the drum and axle and it unlocked. I think either the drum or e-brake was jammed full of snow and ice and didn't want to budge yesterday.

Thanks for help guys.
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You might check your bellcrank if it happens again. That's the pivoting lever on the back of the rear brake that connects to the e-brake cable. A little ice and salt can lock that sucker up overnight.

Here is an excellent DIY on that issue:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachments/3rd-gen-t4rs/102497d1384491163-bell-cranks-38092d1231601230-sticking-parking-brake-bellcranks-toyota-truck-park-brake-bellcrank-repair.pdf
 
TheDurk said:
You might check your bellcrank if it happens again. That's the pivoting lever on the back of the rear brake that connects to the e-brake cable. A little ice and salt can lock that sucker up overnight.

Here is an excellent DIY on that issue:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachments/3rd-gen-t4rs/102497d1384491163-bell-cranks-38092d1231601230-sticking-parking-brake-bellcranks-toyota-truck-park-brake-bellcrank-repair.pdf
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Thanks for the heads up. I thought I fixed the issue earlier as I was able to drive to town, but when I got back in my car the problem was there again. Going to try and sort the problem out tomorrow, so I'll definitely look into this when I'm wrenching on her.
 
Thats frustrating, I went through something similar on mine. The ebrake would just keep tightening up until the brake on that one side would lock up. Adjusting all the linkage and bell cranks worked for me, so hopefully it'll help you out too.
 
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