Front drum bind when tightened with lug nuts. (1 Viewer)

[boss73]

Hi everyone!

I have a 1970 FJ40, 3 spd. All pretty much stock except for the 350 under the hood. The truck has become my Father-in-laws and I am posting up this question for him.

Anyhow, last week while doing some work to the truck, he noticed that the driver side the front wheel were not turning normally and binding pretty bad. He backed off the lug nuts and the wheel began to spin freely again. He took the wheel off and then just tightened the lugs directly to the drum, with no wheel, and it still binds when it gets tight. Puzzled, we placed washers behind the drum to space it out away from the hub, and it still binds when we tighten the lugs. I mean just hand tight with a small wrench not even using any kind of air anything, snug may be a better word.

I then took off the drum and put it on backwards on the lugs. The drum was not contacting the brake pads or backing plate. We tightened it up and it did spin free. I did notice that the drum looks a bit warped. Its not to bad but definitely not true.

Has anyone ever experienced this ? Brakes are all stock. A new master cylinder was installed last year and we replaced both wheel cylinders on the passenger side rear wheel, Bled the system and it was working fine until last week.

Truck is not a daily driver , mostly cuz my dad is retired. SO it can sit for weeks at a time.

Any advise or a point in the right direction would be great !

Thanks in advance for any advice or help with this situation.



Tony

 

[cjgoode]

Adjust the brake pads in a little and see if you can get it to spin freely while tight, make sure you still have good brake pedal. I have seen this before with warped drums. If they are really out of wack or the metal is warn to much I would just replace them. If while driving you can feel the pedal pulsing or the brakes not slowing smoothly replace them. Also make sure both the wheel cylinders are still freely moving, if one sticks can cause issues.

 

[SteveH]

I had this happen on a rear drum and after extensive fiddling around and a new drum, I determined that I was missing the thick paper gasket that is supposed to exist between the drum and the axle flange face. The drum would lock up when the lug nuts were tightened, just like yours did. I found it hard to believe, but there it was. Toyota stocks these gaskets.

 

[boss73]

Thanks guys I will look at everything that was suggested

My dad did put washers in between the drum and flange, to help space it out and it would still bind when tightened. I will look into the paper gasket.

 

[skidplate]

When I first did a brake adjustment on "75, I was going to make it "easy", so I adjusted the brakes with the wheel off, sure 'nuff, after I torqued the wheel on the brakes were binding. I've finally learned to tighten the wheel then adjust the brakes. I never really gave it a lot of thought what the deal is but thats what works on mine.

 

[lostmarbles]

.... I determined that I was missing the thick paper gasket that is supposed to exist between the drum and the axle flange face.

My 1979 has never had any gasket separating any drum from what it sits on ... but then again it has full-floating axles front and rear so my drums always sit on hubs.

But even if I look at Toyota EPC information I see no sign of a gasket there for any semifloater (where the rear drums sit on the axle flanges) going back to 1969.

Are you talking pre-1969 then Steve?



PS.

• If a drum is noticeably warped then I think it should be replaced.
• And if old linings have worn a step in a drum, new linings can perform exactly as described here because snugging up the drum may force the step into the sides of the new linings. (This may be able to be cured by taking the edge off the linings with a file or sandpaper.)

 

[Heirloom]

You could have a brake shop load the drum onto a lathe and measure run-out. Maybe the drums just need to be turned.

 

[bikersmurf]

Might also improve on drum to axle alignment.

I read something on Marks Off Road sit that stock drums do warp a bit when lugs tightened. He sells thicker drums which eliminate this problem. I've got 4 wheel discs now so no more drum problems.

 

[boss73]

:update2/3/13:


Well after working on it yesterday we think that we have figured it out.. Turns out the wheel cylinders were bad. Turns out the drums were true after all. My dad was able to run several tests and we just did nit have the drum mounted tight enough in our first test. He is retired so he also has lots of time.. Haha

After looking at the pads for a while we both started to notice that three was hardly any wear on the shoes. I mean they looked brand new.

Because of this we decided to look if we could see the wheel cylinders move with the drum off. Not the wisest way to test but I Figured if we could just see them move a little it would mean they were at least moving and not frozen. Well I got to the floor on the pedal and he did not see them move a bit. We then tried to install the drum and it would've not go on. So they must have moved a bit, but they did not retract back. Since we had brand new wheel cylinders we just replaced them, bled them out, adjusted them all the way in cuz the shoes are like new. Put the wheel on Torqued wheels and there is just a bit of a rub now, but the wheel turns now where it was just bound before.

Now we had the same problem on passenger rear. wheel was tight and would not spin. We did replace both wheel cylinder last year so we new that was not the issue. I took the wheel off and it spun freely when the lugs where loose. Think I am going to back off the shoes and then adjust the brakes with the wheel torqued.

Thanks all for the great advise and help !

You all have pretty much seen and done it all and I thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience..


Tony