75' Drum Brake Woes and OEM Parts Availability

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

FWIW, I ordered a pair of rear wheel cylinders from cruiserteq on Monday afternoon and received them Wednesday afternoon in OH. Price was fair for Japanese made products and shipping was fast. Pretty much a no brainer.
 
Awhile back I put all new OEM Tokico shocks on my 40. They were about $20 each. I damaged one on the trail and went back to the dealer to get a replacement. The part number had been superseded and the new price was $40. When I opened the package, the original $20 part number was stamped into the shock body, it was identical.
Most economies are based on “market price” as opposed to “cost”. They charge what someone there thinks is the market price; Old Toyota parts prices are not very consistent but should not be expected to be fixed at cost. I am an appraiser, appraised homes for years. Sometimes one of the bigger, nicer, homes in the neighborhood would sell higher than all other sales, and the lender would balk… I eventually started telling them “If no house can ever sell for more than the highest price in the neighborhood, then houses would cost the same as when Lincoln was President”. 😀
 
How good can a $20 shock be? Well its better than the same unit in a new box at $40. Soon it will be like $10,000 allen wrenches or $50,000 toilet seats. Mr. T must be on the NASA model now.
 
Most economies are based on “market price” as opposed to “cost”. They charge what someone there thinks is the market price; Old Toyota parts prices are not very consistent but should not be expected to be fixed at cost. I am an appraiser, appraised homes for years. Sometimes one of the bigger, nicer, homes in the neighborhood would sell higher than all other sales, and the lender would balk… I eventually started telling them “If no house can ever sell for more than the highest price in the neighborhood, then houses would cost the same as when Lincoln was President”. 😀
All I can say is that I wish you assholes would stop paying double and triple what stuff sells for. Yall walk in and complain your parts bill is too low? 😀 We ARE the market.
 
Last edited:
IMO, it actually isn't hard to justify for many. $375 for an discontinued OEM (Aisin/Advics is OEM) part that will last another 30-40 years (or far more by tossing in a Japanese rebuild kit), is pretty modest imo. Note, we (Cruiser Oufitters) don't have one to sell you, we sold our last OEM/AISIN one last year. If you wouldn't mind sharing who still has the 47201-60030/31 (BMT-060) for $375, I'd love to pick one or two up. That is about what I paid for the last few I bought out of the Middle East after tax, duties and shipping. For those that need a lower cost option, there are a wide variety of aftermarket or used OEM cores available to toss a rebuild kit in.




Supply restriction from Amayama generally means it's a NLA part. I'm assuming they do that to keep search engine optimization? Not sure but that is not a country resricted part, it's discontinued imo. Need all (8) cylinder kits? I'd be happy to give them to you for $70/set of 8. Or, we can get you setup with a full set of (8) Japanese complete new wheel cylinders for $300. We will be setting up sets of (4) and (8) on our CruiserTeq site soon.
Kurt, I took a look at the wheel cylinders on your website, the piston ends do not have the angled self-centering geometry as the originals. I want to retain the self centering functionality so I'll give a rebuild of my OEM cylinders a try. I'll take you up on your offer for the rebuild kit set, those are not posted on your website yet. Do you have any 10psi external residual pressure valves for sing the 80 series master on the 4-wheel drum 40's? Sending you a PM.
 
For anyone in the same predicament with the drum brake master cylinder, the Advics BMT-090 and a set of 10 psi residual pressure valves is what you need. The pressure valves install inline and the master is the same 1 inch bore as the original 75' 4 wheel drum master. Made in Japan and only about $76, the SAME price as the original one was before Advics decided to stop making them.
1756817522433.webp
 
Kurt, I took a look at the wheel cylinders on your website, the piston ends do not have the angled self-centering geometry as the originals. I want to retain the self centering functionality so I'll give a rebuild of my OEM cylinders a try.
I meant to ask you this question earlier but got side tracked. I recently replaced the OEM rear cylinders on my '77 FJ55 with the FIC ones from Cruiser Outfitters and I frankly couldn't tell the difference from the OEM ones. Can you explain what you mean by "self-centering geometry"? Just curious more than anything as the FIC replacements fit perfectly.
 
The slots where the shoe fit in the adjuster were milled on a slant at the bottom, now there are milled with flat bottom (cheaper). When the slope from the axle is up hill on both slots it helps keep the shoe centered.
 
Here is a comparison of the angled adjuster vs an aftermarket one. I found that the size and thread doesn’t always the replacement wheel cylinders.

IMG_7795.webp
 
I will add a little to what @charliemeyer007 and @nabassi posted. I have not seen any aftermarket wheel cylinders that have the angled adjusters. A LOT of the aftermarket wheel cylinders are not built as beefy as the originals, the adjustment screws are much smaller in diameter and the amount of iron in the castings is much less. The CCOT wheel cylinders that I will be throwing away have such small slots in the adjusters that a set of OEM brake shoes will not fit without grinding the width tip of the shoe down. This is part of my frustration with this aftermarket JUNK. CCOT says grinding the shoes is "normal", you can not reason with them, taking a grinder to brand new brake parts that are application specific, is NOT normal. Keep in mind, the front wheel cylinders are single acting in that they have two pistons, but only one is hydraulically activated, the other piston (non adjuster side) just sits in a blind bore. The rear shoes should in theory, move radially as both pistons act on the shoe equally. Studying the depiction, it looks as if the intent of the angled adjuster may be to transfer more of the hydraulic force into the x direction. Since the non actuated piston is doing nothing, the angled face would put both x and y translation into the shoe, effectively spreading the force better over the friction surface. This is just a theory. Toyota had a reason for this design, and I feel much better about using the original design.

1758466413231.webp
 
I will add a little to what @charliemeyer007 and @nabassi posted. I have not seen any aftermarket wheel cylinders that have the angled adjusters. A LOT of the aftermarket wheel cylinders are not built as beefy as the originals, the adjustment screws are much smaller in diameter and the amount of iron in the castings is much less. The CCOT wheel cylinders that I will be throwing away have such small slots in the adjusters that a set of OEM brake shoes will not fit without grinding the width tip of the shoe down. This is part of my frustration with this aftermarket JUNK. CCOT says grinding the shoes is "normal", you can not reason with them, taking a grinder to brand new brake parts that are application specific, is NOT normal. Keep in mind, the front wheel cylinders are single acting in that they have two pistons, but only one is hydraulically activated, the other piston (non adjuster side) just sits in a blind bore. The rear shoes should in theory, move radially as both pistons act on the shoe equally. Studying the depiction, it looks as if the intent of the angled adjuster may be to transfer more of the hydraulic force into the x direction. Since the non actuated piston is doing nothing, the angled face would put both x and y translation into the shoe, effectively spreading the force better over the friction surface. This is just a theory. Toyota had a reason for this design, and I feel much better about using the original design.
That's interesting information; thanks. I went back and looked at the FSM and found the instruction on orienting the adjusting nut. I think your theory is correct that they want some of the force in the X direction. That force creates a "push back" against the frictional force of the hub which is trying to make that shoe rotate forward. Again, I think you're correct that it's to apply some of the force in the X direction; just adding to the "why" they might have done that. Now you have me curious enough to pull off a hub to check the FIC cylinders.

I also had some trouble getting my old brake shoes (which are still well within spec - like almost new) into the FIC slots so I opened a new set of OEM Toyota shoes and they fit quite well. Now I'm thinking that maybe the old shoes were not OEM Toyota. Hard to tell. OEM on the right.

1758549351483.webp


1758549308489.webp
 
Teardown complete. I am now shopping for knuckle kits. Got some seepage and I dont want that getting on my new brakes. @cruiseroutfit whats the scoop on your knuckle kits? I can't find much info on Sumo Gear. I did confirm that Toyota has atleast the ball side components still available. Not so sure bearings need to be replaced as much as people replace them. I noticed the marlin crawler eco seals are out of stock, and none coming in until November at the earliest. Sighhh, I sure do miss driving this thing. Can anyone spot the root cause of the wheel cylinders sticking?

20250928_143831.webp


20250928_161855.webp
 
Teardown complete. I am now shopping for knuckle kits. Got some seepage and I dont want that getting on my new brakes. @cruiseroutfit whats the scoop on your knuckle kits? I can't find much info on Sumo Gear. I did confirm that Toyota has atleast the ball side components still available. Not so sure bearings need to be replaced as much as people replace them. I noticed the marlin crawler eco seals are out of stock, and none coming in until November at the earliest. Sighhh, I sure do miss driving this thing. Can anyone spot the root cause of the wheel cylinders sticking?

View attachment 4001191

View attachment 4001192

Lots of details here:

Joint Fuji gasket/shim kit, NOK (same as OEM) seals, Koyo (same as OEM) bearings. We've been selling them for 30+ years, fantastic kits. Sumo is a more recent branding but we've worked with the importer to refine the parts in the kits over the years. We also stock any/all 'While you're in there' parts you might want to consider, new birfs/axles, hubs, flanges, spindles, bushings, etc. Unfortunately Marlin is out of stock on the EcoSeals, we buy them by the 100's but unfortunately the don't expect to have them back for a minute. IF your inner axle seals are in good shape, you shouldn't have any issues with the factory NOK seal (supplied in kit).
 
The bottom trunion bearing gets hammered by ruff roads, potholes, offroad trails and such.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom