2004 parking brake issues :( (1 Viewer)

[TranOverland]

Hi guys, first post.

Coming from a built 2015 forester xt, needed something bigger as our family grew by one, this month. Scored a great 210k mile truck with zero rust over the summer for a fairly good deal. It drives great, has a driveshaft thunk that doesn’t bother me, taken it onto the sand at ibsp and Long Island beaches, did great. Only issue seems to be my parking brakes.

Had a local shop replaced bell crank assembly (looked seized), and shoes but wouldn’t hold the car on a hill. I currently am turning my wheel in to the curb to hold it still. Only time I’d worry is on a boat launch with a trailer. Anyway, I took it to another shop to see if they could have better luck, but was at a loss too. They mentioned that the left side kinda works, but the right doesn’t budge at all, even after adjustments. They said I should bite the bullet take it to the dealer.

Anyone else having issues like this? Why can’t I find complete parking brake assembly/rebuild kits online? Or maybe I fail at googling. I’m in the Bergen county area of NJ, any recommendations to shops would be great, as I would like to avoid the dealer if possible. Thanks.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Crawl under the back end under the spare and have someone else pull the park brake lever up and down. You should easily be able to see the cable and each side bell crank. Then you can get an idea for what's moving and what's not. No complete "kit" since everyone needs to replace different bits, some just the cranks, some the cables too.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

If the cable is operating correctly, as trunk monkey has described, then you will want to try adjusting the "star nut" on each wheel. This will expand/contract the shoes to adjust them correctly.

You can buy a kit with all of the springs and hardware for less than $30:
https://www.amazon.com/Beck-Arnley-...-4-1-1893-89-1-0&sr=1-35&ymm=2001:lexus:lx470

First, do as trunk monkey has mentioned and check that the cable is functioning as expected. If you have the time, you can trouble shoot and fix this by yourself in a few hours.

 

[morganism]

On the older cruisers, there is a plastic fitting on the cable sheath itself, that fits into a mount point above tranny. It can rust up, and cause lock ups, but havnt heard it cause no locks.

There is also a balancer for front to rear brake strength usually on the master cyl on the newer models. Dont know if your model has it near the rear driveshaft instead, or if it has any bearing on the "usually" cable only Ebrake.

 

[nissanh]

Are the brake shoes are oem? or aftermarket. Oem brake shoe kit is about $130! So I went with an aftermarket shoe set, but those are garbage. When I adjust the brake handle to lock in 4 to 5 clicks, I find the shoes are rubbing the rotor upon heating during normal driving. Now I have the brake to engage at 8 clicks on park brake lever, and this made the brake to be soft. Ordering an oem set from Japan.

 

[Live to Ski]

TranOverland: Parking brakes on the 100's are a rare beast. very few shops know how to work/adjust 'em. Matter of fact, I use this scenario as a test for prospective mechanics. If they flunk the procedure question, even while cheating (looking up), they are.......

Your best bet is to get a copy of the FSM. Feel free to reach out to me w/r to my digital FSM (can you say "play it forward?").

 

[nissanh]

Can you please forward a copy of how to set the park brake to hilux4wd@gmail.com? Thanks

 

[TranOverland]

If the cable is operating correctly, as trunk monkey has described, then you will want to try adjusting the "star nut" on each wheel. This will expand/contract the shoes to adjust them correctly.

You can buy a kit with all of the springs and hardware for less than $30:
https://www.amazon.com/Beck-Arnley-084-1661-Emergency-Hardware/dp/B004ZQM81Y/ref=sr_1_35?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1541267405&vehicle=2001-75-1019-20--9-6-8-4691-1780-4-1-1893-89-1-0&sr=1-35&ymm=2001:lexus:lx470

First, do as trunk monkey has mentioned and check that the cable is functioning as expected. If you have the time, you can trouble shoot and fix this by yourself in a few hours.

I may need to get that hardware kit. I ordered the bell crank kit which I thought was the problem. Originally the bell looked seized like in an open open position. Once I had that replaced, I did the star wheel adjust. The left side held ok, the right side seems rusted to hell because nothing moved.

 

[TranOverland]

TranOverland: Parking brakes on the 100's are a rare beast. very few shops know how to work/adjust 'em. Matter of fact, I use this scenario as a test for prospective mechanics. If they flunk the procedure question, even while cheating (looking up), they are.......

Your best bet is to get a copy of the FSM. Feel free to reach out to me w/r to my digital FSM (can you say "play it forward?").

Thanks much. I figured as much.

 

[Tres Toys]

X2 on double checking the adjustment on the parking brakes as it is not something that is intuitive. After having a close call with the LX rolling off the jack when changing a flat tire due to the parking brake not holding, I decided to adjust the somewhat neglected parking brakes . I adjusting the parking brakes on the two 100's and the LX470 in my driveway a couple weeks ago per the FSM and they went from hardly working to now all working great. It took less than an hour for each vehicle. There are three items to adjust in sequence for the parking brake to work properly. Not a hard job, you just follow all the steps. Best of luck.

 

[TranOverland]

Are the brake shoes are oem? or aftermarket. Oem brake shoe kit is about $130! So I went with an aftermarket shoe set, but those are garbage. When I adjust the brake handle to lock in 4 to 5 clicks, I find the shoes are rubbing the rotor upon heating during normal driving. Now I have the brake to engage at 8 clicks on park brake lever, and this made the brake to be soft. Ordering an oem set from Japan.

Not oem. I don’t think the shoes are the issue though.

 

[uHu]

As per above, not intuitive. Most experienced mechs will do it wrong. An amateur with the FSM might do it right, because he would just follow the (illogical) steps in the FSM.
I have never heard of any good alternative to the OEM shoes. I even tried an Oz "supershoe" - pos.

 

[abuck99]

The E brake in the 100 is notoriously weak- (holds better back-facing downhill than front- facing down hill.)

Is the hand brake set to 4-6 clicks ? if not adjust shoes then cable. Remove wheels, re-install 2 or 3 lug nuts to hub to hold it secure,
remove the rubber access plug to gain access to the adjuster, position the access hole to 6 O'clock and follow the steps below.

And what is a “built” Forester XT?

 

[uHu]

It is important to adjust the bell crank stoppers and the wire between the two wheels before adjusting the shoes.

 

[abuck99]

It is important to adjust the bell crank stoppers and the wire between the two wheels before adjusting the shoes. Crucial.

If you want to get the most adjustment range from the cable: Adj. shoes first, then stoppers, then the cable is left last for fine adjustment.

 

[uHu]

Is that the order? I should have checked the FSM first. It's not intuitive and it's been a while since last adjust .

 

[abuck99]

Is that the order? I should have checked the FSM first. It's not intuitive and it's been a while since last adjust .

I won't say out of order but maybe it depends on where you are in your overall adjustment process. Its the order I follow based on how I interpret the FSM- (see point #2 in the second image in post #13).

Shoes first is like a baseline process, if the shoes are adjusted first- it requires less cable adjustment after and allows enough space on the threaded adjuster to make a couple of cable adjustments as the shoes loosen up over time. When you've run out of cable adjustment, then go back and loosen cable adjuster to recapture some threads then go back to shoe adjustment first, then stoppers and cable adjustment etc.

 

[nissanh]

Working on the bell cranks. Passenger side is almost about to run out of threads(1st pic). Got new aftermarket brake shoes 10000 miles ago. Tighten the adjustes through the hole on rotor and backed off 8 tabs on the adjuster wheel. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[BK470]

On the older cruisers, there is a plastic fitting on the cable sheath itself, that fits into a mount point above tranny. It can rust up, and cause lock ups, but havnt heard it cause no locks.

There is also a balancer for front to rear brake strength usually on the master cyl on the newer models. Dont know if your model has it near the rear driveshaft instead, or if it has any bearing on the "usually" cable only Ebrake.

Hope this isn't a thread hijack - just chiming in to say that when I bought the car the parking brake didn't hold the truck at all (note that this got by a dealership pre-buy inspection). I had my brakes replaced recently and expected that the parking brake could be fixed at the same time. The shop told me they were able to get the parking brake to functionally hold the vehicle, but didn't trust that it would fully release because the line was "gummy." They said they'd have to tear the truck apart to get up to run new cables or clean out whatever was gumming up the action-- near where the cables attach to the brake handle in the center console-- and that it probably wasn't worth it to do by itself, better to wait until there was some other reason to do some larger-scale disassembly and tack that on to the bigger job.

Does that pass the smell test? Seemed reasonable but disappointing to me at the time, but the more I sit with it, the more it seems like the job just wasn't finished.

 

[Live to Ski]

In OC/Toyota world, nothing passes the smell test (in my world anyways).

Basically, u better know as much/more than the person u hire