Brakes Adjusted... WOW

[yournamehere]

I have been noticing for the last few months my brakes are just not working well enough to be safe. Of course this began just after putting on my 33's.

I took the cruiser to a great little local shop this morning to have the brakes bled, thinking I had air or water in the lines. First we gravity bled them, then pump bled... nothing. While under the truck the guy adjusted my rear brakes.

I can;t tell you how much of a difference that made. No sponge feeling in the pedal and much less pedal effort required to get her to stop.

Just trhought I would share my elation.

 

[loeky]

glad to hear you got them working. it's always a good feeling.

question - i was under the impression that setting the emergency brake 'adjusted' the rear brakes. can you elaborate as to what they did for reference?

enjoy!

 

[yournamehere]

Well, I told him that I thought they were "self adjusting" with the e brake. He said in the many years of him working on cars he's never seen a set adjust correctly. He said some brakes adjust using the e-brake, some by just moving in reverse and depressing the brake. The latter of these is what he said were on my cruiser. He described a wheel with teeth on the edge of it and a "hammer" that is supposed to ratchet this toothed wheel tighter and tighter as I back up. This is the part that doesn't work apparently. He stuck ad awl-screwdriver ( I only saw the handel ) and turned the toothed wheel until it didn't want to turn anymore. This made over an inch of play in my pedal go away. I drove back down to ask which way to turn the wheel for reference but they closed at 12. today.

 

[2mbb]

WHe stuck ad awl-screwdriver ( I only saw the handel ) and turned the toothed wheel until it didn't want to turn anymore. This made over an inch of play in my pedal go away. I drove back down to ask which way to turn the wheel for reference but they closed at 12. today.

Hopefully he didn't leave them too tight. According to the FSM, you jack the wheel off the ground and adjust the star wheel unitl the wheel locks up (doesn't turn anymore). Then you back off the star wheel until the wheel just turns freely (it says about 5 notches). This provides a tight brake that doesn't drag.

 

[yournamehere]

I gotta get one of tose dang books.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Does your E-brake actually work well? Often the bellcrank on the e-brake will get jammed due to corrosion and not fully release.

Crawl under and see if they move freely at each rear wheel. If not you'll need to take it apart and free it.

Next time you do the rear brakes clean and lube the adjuster. It's probably full of brake dust, dirt and hard grease.

 

[swank60]

Well, I told him that I thought they were "self adjusting" with the e brake. He said in the many years of him working on cars he's never seen a set adjust correctly. He said some brakes adjust using the e-brake, some by just moving in reverse and depressing the brake. The latter of these is what he said were on my cruiser. He described a wheel with teeth on the edge of it and a "hammer" that is supposed to ratchet this toothed wheel tighter and tighter as I back up. This is the part that doesn't work apparently. He stuck ad awl-screwdriver ( I only saw the handel ) and turned the toothed wheel until it didn't want to turn anymore. This made over an inch of play in my pedal go away. I drove back down to ask which way to turn the wheel for reference but they closed at 12. today.

The star wheel only turns one direction for tightening. If you want to back off the star wheel, you have to use a second screw driver or awl to push on the arm that stops/automatically adjusts the brakes.

The star wheel adjuster system is part #52 in the diagram. The arm system is that clicks and adjusts it is part of that #60-62 system that attaches to the e-brake cable junk.

The rear brakes are the bane of my existence, I swear.

 

[Poser]

Well, I told him that I thought they were "self adjusting" with the e brake. He said in the many years of him working on cars he's never seen a set adjust correctly. He said some brakes adjust using the e-brake, some by just moving in reverse and depressing the brake. The latter of these is what he said were on my cruiser.

Your wrench is not correct.


The rear brakes will not adjust automatically....not on a 60 series Land Cruiser.


They are adjusted by using the parking brake, or manually, like he did, that is it....no amount of backing up and hitting the brakes will adjust them, period.

 

[Spook50]

Your wrench is not correct.


The rear brakes will not adjust automatically....not on a 60 series Land Cruiser.


They are adjusted by using the parking brake, or manually, like he did, that is it....no amount of backing up and hitting the brakes will adjust them, period.

What Poser said.

 

[lonelydriver]

are you guys able to actually stick a screwdriver thru the little rectangle to push on the adjuster arm to turn the star gear to loosen? I tried for a while and saw no possible way of getting the screwdriver past the star gear because it was blocking the adjuster arm. Do you need a curved screwdriver or something?

 

[toynut]

you can buy a prake adjusting tool it is a short curved screw driver like tool , you can pick one up for under 10$ , i use a couple of stubby screw drivers the second one is to hold the adjusting mechanisim back when you need to back it off , make your adjustments with the wheels in the air . and what poser said is correct the star wheel is adjusted thru the parking brake , allthough lots of older cruisers have problems due to coroded bell cranks and rusted coroded hardware .