Sticking rear brakes when cold?

[drallan]

99 v6 Ltd 4wd 230k

Past week or so i've run into an issue 1st thing in the morning. After backing out of the driveway and shifting from R to D I have experienced some issues. Truck starts fine, shifts into R fine, backs out of driveway fine and seems to shift into D fine (can feel it drop into gear). However, I don't move and sometimes have to apply a bit of gas to get her to move, and when I do I hear/feel a loud clunk from the rear. I've learned that if I shift back/forth through the gears a couple times she gets moving without needing extra throttle or clunk. This only occurs 1st thing in the morning and not again for the rest of the day. No other issues driving. Temps in the am have been 30s-40s.

At first I feared it was transmission related, but now I am thinking it is a sticking rear drum? Haven't taken off wheels yet.

Things I have done with little effect:

Check trans fluid and drain/fill pan via plug - Fluid was nice and red and didn't smell burnt. I do a trans drain and fill every 6mo w/ oil change, so the majority of the fluid should be fairly new. I've been doing this several years now.

Lubed all driveline zerks front and rear drive shaft and u-joints.

Things I haven't done:

Check rear diff fluid (I know it needs to be changed)
Remove drums and see what I'm dealing with.

I probably won't get to checking out the rear until this weekend, but I didn't know if anyone else had run into something similar. Any insight as to why drums would be sticky/stuck only when cold? Both drums were serviced and brake fluid checked/bled a few years ago when I had to replace one of the rear brake cylinders.

 

[JMat]

I had the same problem a couple years ago and when I pulled the drums I had my answer... Leaky rear axles seal and the shoes were soaked in gear oil. Only happened when it was cold out and new rear axle seals and brake shoes fixed the issue.

 

[drallan]

Dang,

Not the answer I wanted to hear. I haven't noticed any mess on the back of the tires, will have to look again.

 

[brillo_76]

Either gear grease or stuck emergency brake cable parts.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[drallan]

Fingers crossed its E-brake related. In conversation about it with my wife I learned that a few weeks ago she drove a couple hundred yards w/ E-brake on. Fear is something heated up and warped the seals, hopefully just burned up some ebrake parts. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

 

[Bad Luck]

Fingers crossed its E-brake related. In conversation about it with my wife I learned that a few weeks ago she drove a couple hundred yards w/ E-brake on. Fear is something heated up and warped the seals, hopefully just burned up some ebrake parts. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

You could drive a lot further than a couple hundred yards with the e brake on and not generate enough heat to affect anything rear brake related.

 

[97Cruiser40th]

Your experience sounds very similar to mine I documented here

Help with Banging Sound When in Drive and Accelerate

Never did find a fix and over summer not an issue. No axle seal leak at all verified by 3 different shops as bone dry, checked brakes and all said brakes look all new never did settle on a solution and not likely gonna do any work on it rest of year.

One thought I had but couldnt verify is the bell crank could be seizing and bought parts for that to replace but havent done it yet. I think by spring I will have replaced drums, hardware, bell crank parts etc if that doesnt do it then itll just sit.

Ill tell you though there have been a couple times when it broke free it felt like someone smacked the whole drive train with a sledge. It only does it when I shift into drive never an issue in reverse. Makes no freaking sense.

Good luck

 

[Malcolm99]

The bellcrank arm is made of steel, the pivot that bolts to the backing plate is aluminum,.. They don't get along well at all and corrode easily. Disconnect ebrake cable and take the pivot pin out that joins the 2 offending metals, it will most likely need persuasion or even a c-clamp and hammer to press/knock it out, clean them both up lube and reassemble and adjust brake shoes so the bellcrank is a mm off the backing plate after pulling the ebrake a few times to set final adjustments, I find adjusting the brakes so the drum is a bugger to get on puts it close to it range that a few ebrake pulls sets it within spec after adjusting the bell crank adjuster bolt.

 

[thegipper]

My truck does the same thing every once in awhile, especially when cold. Rear brakes will lock up when coming to a stop in a parking lot (1-2 mph or less). I've inspected the drums and don't see any gear oil on them. I've cleaned and greased everything up but it still does it here and there.

My solution: Do nothing

Generally, significant axle seal oil leaks is what causes this to happen so definitely take off your drums and have a look at it. Maybe you'll get "lucky" like me and find no oil in the drums even though I can't figure out why they occasionally bind up.

 

[FD7683]

If the bell cranks seem to be seized due to rust (and look to be out) - smack then with a hammer so they are sitting flush to the backing plate (since you said your wife drove it with the e-brake up). If that isn't the trick, then I would pull the drums and do an examination from there although a leaking axle seal should be noticeable behind the rear wheel (it would look like a mess).

__________________
2000 Toyota 4Runner 4x4 Limited Sport Edition V6

 

[4Skinner98]

I had this problem with my 4runner, rear passenger side brake would stick sometimes in cold weather. I replaced the rear brake cylinders on both sides. The problem disappeared.