Help With Rear Brakes (1 Viewer)

[ewrk1989]

Well, I went to replace my rear brake pads and rotors last night. I've got problems with noise and I think some friction when not pushing the pedal.

The noise is a cyclical sound that picks up after about 5mph. It sounds like "shick shick shick shick", and speeds up/down with the vehicle speed. I feel like this is maybe the pads contacting the rotor even when not braking. They are brand new and I don't know if there's even enough room for the cylinder to depress further. So will the pads just ride for a while?

The other issue is the parking brake. I backed off the shoes to remove/replace the rotors, and then just tried to dial the adjuster back the same amount. But I'm fairly certain the shoes don't engage when I pull up the lever. I can pull it up a lot more than before and it requires a lot less force. Should I go back and adjust until the shoes touch and then back off a turn or two? I didn't touch the bell crank or anything else.

I greased the caliper pins and backs of the shims. Otherwise there's no grease. Should I try putting some in the 4 clips that grab the pads?

Thanks a lot.

 

[nissanh]

Did you use OEM brake pads?

Here is why I like the OEM. They got the best friction material and just a little force at the brake paddle, is sufficient to stop the truck. This puts less force on the master pump and washers and other material will last a long time.

My truck came with almost new brake pads but not OEM, so I replaced all at all 4 wheels and the brake power is amazing. The truck comes to a complete stop with very less effort.

Non OEM pads may have a thicker material so it might be still tight.

The shick shick sound could be from the brake hardware that is not properly mounted.

Yes, apply some anti seize to the clips.

For the 2nd question: Park brake:

You have to adjust the bell cranks to adjust the rear park brakes. I adjust while the wheel is on and on ground. Yes, turn it until it won’t move anymore and then loosen it about ½ turn.

 

[ewrk1989]

I have put on Duralast Gold pads and when I did the front I was very satisfied. They probably don't do what your OEM ones do but I'm impressed how quickly they bring nearly 3 tons to a stop.

I'm not sure what could be improperly mounted, but I'll inspect them again. The slide pins needed a little dressing to clean off some corrosion. I cleaned out the insides of the holes and greased so that everything slid smoothly.

Does it hurt to drive a bit until they wear down...? That's all I can really think to do.

Regarding the parking brake, do you just go through the procedure in the FSM? I'm not sure if I can access the adjuster with the wheel on...I had to turn the rotor so the access hole was in the 6-o-clock position if not already. Hummm...

 

[nissanh]

If the brakes are too tight, I will probably grind off the pad material. Jackup and spin the wheel to feel the tightness.

I adjusted the park brakes even without removing the tire/wheel. Just roll it to the 6 O clock position and you are good to adjust it.

 

[abuck99]

I had the same issue after replacing my rear brakes ( with all OEM parts ) Prob the back plate/shield that the brake shoes attach to is scraping the inside of the edge of the rotor where the shoes ride. Its not really causing any harm, just sounds hoopty. This will eventually go away. You can pull the rotor and file down the edges of the shield where the arrows are point to or let time take care of that.

Using a new gasket might cure that. Old compressed gasket will not allow for enough clearance on a new rotor. At least this was my experience when I replaced my rear rotors.

 

[ewrk1989]

Ah, thanks for that, @abuck99 . I checked the calipers and everything was good. I then performed the FSM procedure for adjusting the parking brake shoes and it did help quite a bit. In doing so I discovered that my left bell crank is doing fine, but my right one was frozen. With generous application of PB Blaster I was able to get it moving, but it has too much friction for the tension springs to overcome. I'll need to replace it.

I had torn into the assembly and was going to try to clean it up but the bell crank pin didn't really want to come out even with some tapping. I was able to remove the horseshoe clip but maybe there's another trick to it. I don't know how I'd replace without getting the pin out. Maybe applying some heat to expand the hole.

At this point there is a bit of a scraping sound coming from both sides but it doesn't sound so horrible like it did before the adjustment. I'm going to drive it a bit and see if it goes away. The parking brake needs max pull to really engage whereas it did not before. Maybe I could try engaging it and going from P to D and see if the vehicle wants to roll forward. Not sure what the expected behavior is here...I would think "it doesn't roll".

There is a scraping sound during sharp turns. I think this has come up on the forum before.

All that said, the vehicle brakes great now. No more pulsing from the rear rotors!

 

[abuck99]

You can tap the the bell cranks with a hammer to get them back to the unlocked position.

The horseshoe clip is single use be careful with it- These are hard to come by- auto parts store replacements aren't near as stout as OEM. Better you get the bell cranks freed up, and leave them alone until you can order parts (oem) and correctly rebuild them. (Both sides) my 2 cents.

 

[ewrk1989]

Ok so funny you say that, I did some veritable surgery and actually removed/reinstalled the horseshoe clip. I managed not to mangle it getting it out. I did crimp it upon reinstall. It should stay there for the time being...

I definitely did use my rubber mallet to free up the frozen bell crank. If it's connected to the parking brake line, how can I ensure that it doesn't lock up the next time I engage? Or is the idea to disconnect it from the cable and let just the good one be the brake?

 

[abuck99]

The idea would be replace all of the parts asap. Until then dont use the parking brake until you can R&R. Bring some wheel chocks if you're in a situation where you need to hold the truck with the hand brake. Otherwise you'll have to crawl under the truck to tap them back to the resting position. Disconnecting one side is not a good idea.