FJ cruiser rear parking brake shoe trick (1 Viewer)

[fjdemon]

I found a little hack for getting the rear shoes for the parking brake on. I know it's a huge pain in the butt when you take them off, but I came up with a way and I had never seen anybody do it so I figured I would post it just in case. Hopefully it helps somebody else out in the future.

Basically it took the smallest zip tie I could find then I used that to zip tie the springs together. I then grabbed the tail of the zip tie with a pair of needle nose pliers and was able to pull it out while I slipped the shoe down. Once it was on I just grabbed it with the needle nose plier and twist it until it broke free.

I'm not sure if there's an easier way to do it other than having to disassemble the whole hub and then press it back in, but just seem to work pretty well. I'm going to attach a picture.

 

[iwashmycar]

Nice. I think most of us simply never ever touch ours lol.

Similar trick here: Parking brake shoe replacement tutorial - https://www.fjcruiserforums.com/threads/parking-brake-shoe-replacement-tutorial.554049/page-2#post-9392067

They glued the one cup to the shoe, did your ziptie trick to just the spring, then slipped the other cup on and rotated.

 

[fjdemon]

Nice. I think most of us simply never ever touch ours lol.

Similar trick here: Parking brake shoe replacement tutorial - https://www.fjcruiserforums.com/threads/parking-brake-shoe-replacement-tutorial.554049/page-2#post-9392067

They glued the one cup to the shoe, did your ziptie trick to just the spring, then slipped the other cup on and rotated.

Ah, look at all of us engineers LOL!

After looking at that, I would still recommend the way I did it. I don't think you need glue or two zip ties. I also used the cheapest zip tie so I could easily break it off. I'm not even sure where I got these, but I wouldn't use them for anything else due to how bad they are, however they worked great for this.

 

[fjdemon]

The worst part is I used old hardware because it's what I had, but I'm going to order another hardware kit and have to replace this stuff..... I'll be a pro at this soon haha.

 

[BMThiker]

LOL, I ditched all my parking brake crap. I never could get it to stay adjusted for more than a day or so of use. It never really was effective at holding the wheels in park. I went a step further and removed the long cables that go into the back of the dust shield and zip tied them up to the frame. It makes servicing the rear axle much quicker since I'm not limited to how far the semi-float assembly will travel out of the axle tube.

 

[fjdemon]

LOL, I ditched all my parking brake crap. I never could get it to stay adjusted for more than a day or so of use. It never really was effective at holding the wheels in park. I went a step further and removed the long cables that go into the back of the dust shield and zip tied them up to the frame. It makes servicing the rear axle much quicker since I'm not limited to how far the semi-float assembly will travel out of the axle tube.

I can definitely see how it makes it faster and easier lol

I mean do you really even need a parking brake with an automatic? Sounds like a dumb question, but every vehicle I've ever owned has been manual.

I have no problem with the parking brake so far, it's adjusted correctly and I've tested it on my steep driveway. It holds in neutral no problem. Kind of odd they went with shoes for the parking brake. I'll let you know how it holds up.

 

[bigredmachine]

i sued to use an old pair of snap ring pliers that were long enough to reach the cup and skinny enough to make it through the hole in the hub. i think it was a pair of blue points reversable plyers, it was still a pain but it worked