Sticking my foot out the door works better than my E-brake.

[Christiantdoug]

I couldent seem to find a thread on this. only cupholder mods came up. I use my ebrake. Parking on hills. Slowing down near cops so they don't see my brake lights. I drive an auto but its a habit coming from a 5spd. I bought my 1998 4R second hand about 4 months ago. There is absoluetly no stopping power behind my E-brake. On a hill parked with it fully engaged it'll roll right on down the hill like its not even on, no problem. What can I do/check/replace to fix this. After all, it is an Emergency brake.

 

[shootmymime]

so you use your parking brake to help you slow down so the cops dont see your lights? it would be better for you to down shift. you have just worn down your rear brake pad on the parking brake side so its not touching the drum.

 

[Christiantdoug]

so you use your parking brake to help you slow down so the cops dont see your lights? it would be better for you to down shift. you have just worn down your rear brake pad on the parking brake side so its not touching the drum.

Well... That explains It. It is an auto so downshifting is not an option.

 

[jgeorg]

Well... That explains It. It is an auto so downshifting is not an option.

Well say you're doing 45-60... It will be in 4th gear? Just pull the shifter back and put'er into 2. No?

 

[KSWAY]

Or just drive speed limit ?

 

[Coastal616]

Check the little arms that go into the drums, they like to rust and seize, you pretty much have to disassemble, clean, lube and reassemble.

 

[JWaldz]

On the topic of downshifting, you can turn overdrive off (little button on the side of the shifter) and if you're coasting it will usually downshift you or keep you in 3rd gear longer. I use it when going down hills sometimes to give my brakes a break (<< haha).

BTW, it's not like you drive a car.. You drive a SUV! Your ebrake isn't as effective compared to a, oh I dunno, Honda Civic. Get use to it though.. the ebrakes on these things, expecially on autos, are useless unless you park on an incline all the time and it gives you a piece of mind using it.

Liked the title btw, made me laugh. +1 for that!

 

[shootmymime]

why cant you? turn O/D off if your going too fast.

 

[mcaz5]

My e-brake is worthless as well.

 

[AZTOY]

I couldent seem to find a thread on this. only cupholder mods came up. I use my ebrake. Parking on hills. Slowing down near cops so they don't see my brake lights. I drive an auto but its a habit coming from a 5spd. I bought my 1998 4R second hand about 4 months ago. There is absoluetly no stopping power behind my E-brake. On a hill parked with it fully engaged it'll roll right on down the hill like its not even on, no problem. What can I do/check/replace to fix this. After all, it is an Emergency brake.

Did it work good when you first bought it?

 

[Christiantdoug]

Did it work good when you first bought it?

No it never had

 

[Christiantdoug]

Check the little arms that go into the drums, they like to rust and seize, you pretty much have to disassemble, clean, lube and reassemble.

Thank you for answering on topic!

 

[TheDurk]

Check the little arms that go into the drums, they like to rust and seize, you pretty much have to disassemble, clean, lube and reassemble.

This. They are called bellcranks, which you should use as a search term. Here is a good how-to from our pickup brethren:

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/attachments/brakes/38092d1231601230-sticking-parking-brake-bellcranks-toyota-truck-park-brake-bellcrank-repair.pdf

Since our e-brakes don't have their own shoes or pads, but rather work on the main rear brakes, I doubt your law-evading maneuvers have worn them out. That said, if your rear brakes don't work well, neither will your e-brake. So worth checking. Plus, if the bellcranks are seized, the rear adjusters won't work, so problems can spread from one to the other. You should not just say "Oh, the e-brake is worthless, forget about it." Without it, you will end up driving only on your fronts, making you vulnerable to a spin and raising stopping distances.

The bellcranks need to be adjusted as well as cleaned. If the gap is too wide, the adjuster will grab two teeth and tighten up. Too narrow, and no adjustment happens.

For the record, I drive a 5-speed and my e-brake will hold on any slope. It won't lock the rears when I'm moving, but it will slow me down. I maintain my rear brakes and e-brake.

 

[mcaz5]

This. They are called bellcranks, which you should use as a search term. Here is a good how-to from our pickup brethren:

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/foru...-toyota-truck-park-brake-bellcrank-repair.pdf

Since our e-brakes don't have their own shoes or pads, but rather work on the main rear brakes, I doubt your law-evading maneuvers have worn them out. That said, if your rear brakes don't work well, neither will your e-brake. So worth checking. Plus, if the bellcranks are seized, the rear adjusters won't work, so problems can spread from one to the other. You should not just say "Oh, the e-brake is worthless, forget about it." Without it, you will end up driving only on your fronts, making you vulnerable to a spin and raising stopping distances.

The bellcranks need to be adjusted as well as cleaned. If the gap is too wide, the adjuster will grab two teeth and tighten up. Too narrow, and no adjustment happens.

For the record, I drive a 5-speed and my e-brake will hold on any slope. It won't lock the rears when I'm moving, but it will slow me down. I maintain my rear brakes and e-brake.

Good info. I'm gonna try and look into this when I have a chance. My e-brake doesn't work and my back right tire likes to lock up in slick gravel/mud.

 

[Christiantdoug]

This. They are called bellcranks, which you should use as a search term. Here is a good how-to from our pickup brethren:

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/foru...-toyota-truck-park-brake-bellcrank-repair.pdf

Since our e-brakes don't have their own shoes or pads, but rather work on the main rear brakes, I doubt your law-evading maneuvers have worn them out. That said, if your rear brakes don't work well, neither will your e-brake. So worth checking. Plus, if the bellcranks are seized, the rear adjusters won't work, so problems can spread from one to the other. You should not just say "Oh, the e-brake is worthless, forget about it." Without it, you will end up driving only on your fronts, making you vulnerable to a spin and raising stopping distances.

The bellcranks need to be adjusted as well as cleaned. If the gap is too wide, the adjuster will grab two teeth and tighten up. Too narrow, and no adjustment happens.

For the record, I drive a 5-speed and my e-brake will hold on any slope. It won't lock the rears when I'm moving, but it will slow me down. I maintain my rear brakes and e-brake.

This was great advice. Now this thread is getting somewhere. The link above is super helpful and informative for people like me, as I am only 17 and use the school lift/tools to my advantage when I need it.

 

[mcaz5]

Not trying to thread jack, but turns out my right rear bell crank has seized. I never would have known either, but thanks to this thread, I do! Do you think this is the reason my rear brake likes to lock up in mud?

 

[Greg_Canada]

My e-brake works pretty well in my 99' after being adjusted. Have to do the 89' very badly... lol...

 

[hrt4me]

For the record, I drive a 5-speed and my e-brake will hold on any slope. It won't lock the rears when I'm moving, but it will slow me down. I maintain my rear brakes and e-brake.

+1, me too

 

[RC57]

The bellcranks need to be adjusted as well as cleaned. If the gap is too wide, the adjuster will grab two teeth and tighten up. Too narrow, and no adjustment happens.

I'm going to disagree on this one. I just replaced my rear shoes and scratched my head a bit on the bellcrank adjustment and brake cable adjustment.

If the gap is too wide, it will not over-adjust. It simply adds some slack to the parking cable inside the drum. The idea is to adjust the bellcrank so it allows the parking brake lever in the drum to retract all the way where the shoe stop on the lever hits the shoe. Once the shoe stop hits the shoe, the lever can't retract any further. At that point loosening the bellcrank adjusters further adds slack to the parking cable that connects the bellcrank to the parking brake lever (in drum). When you do that, the bellcrank will have to travel further before the parking brake lever (drum) moves. That means you'll have to pull the parking brake lever in the cab more clicks before the brakes engage. (Toyota calls the lever in the drum a parking brake lever. Not to be confused with what Toyota calls a parking brake lever in the cab.)

Otoh, if you tighten the bellcrank adjustment screw too tight, the brakes _will_ overadjust and drag. The automatic adjusting lever still engages the starwheel, only instead of at a tangent on the side of the starwheel, it grabs it towards the top. This allows the adjusting lever to move the star wheel more clicks for a given up and down motion of the adjusting lever tab (where the adjusting lever engages the starwheel).

By adjusting the bellcrank so there's a slight (0.5mm) slack, it ensures the parking brake lever (drum) fully retracts against the brake shoe, and only slight movement of the bellcrank is required before the brake shoes begin to move.

On my 99 T4R, the brake shoes had been replaced once by a dealer technician with oem parts. The bellcrank adjusters were way too tight after I replaced the rear shoes, again with oem. I don't know if they were adjusted by the technician or were that way from the factory. I did not check them with the old shoes. Despite being too tight, the self-adjustment worked fine. Too fine in fact. The brakes overtightened after yanking on the lever repeatedly and I had to keep backing off the starwheel to prevent smoking the new shoes. I had to loosen them about six turns to get them right. Loosening the bellcrank adjuster screws seem to have remedied the overadjustment problem, although a really strong tug on the brake lever (cab) can still get them to overadjust a notch or two. That might go away once the shoes bed into the drum properly.

After I loosened the bellcrank adjusters, the ebrake cable was too tight, so I had to loosen the cable adjuster (in cab) a number of turns to get it right. Now with the wheels in the air, they will spin freely until I pull the lever one click and the brakes begin to drag. The wheels can still be turned by hand at one click. Two clicks and I can no longer turn the wheels.

 

[4 runner offroader]

how to fix

i have a 2000 that has the same problem, its because the rear brakes don't adjust. to fix it, on the back plate of the drum there is an adjustment port. it is covered/plugged with a straight sided rubber plug (a few inches from axel) remove it. insert a screw driver, there is a grooved wheel that rotates up (will make a clicking noise). do like 10 clicks on both sides then check the parking brake, repeat till parking brake only moves up like 2 inches.