Radiator, Brake Drums, and Brake Shoes

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C

Crusher95

Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Threads
5
Messages
42
Location
La Jolla,Ca or Sacramento,Ca
So, we recently sent my FJ62 into a shop for an engine swap and check up. they came back to us asking if we wanted them to do the radiator and brakes as well. we said yes until they showed us the parts prices and how much more they were than everything we found online (900 for a radiator excluding labor). My son and i decided to do the radiator and Brakes stuff (rear drums and Shoes) ourselves. any help with this would be greatly appreciated! Is it worth it to bother with ourselves?
 
Yes - do it yourself! I just finished my rear drums with no prior experience. The drums cost $50 aus each, wheel cylinders $30 each, $50 for the shoes, and about $20 for a spring kit. Take photos as you go so you know where things go, there is a great YouTube vid of a Toyota rear drum rebuild. It is great experience in case anything brakes on the tracks, and the self adjusting handbrake is ingenious... (Well I thought so)
 
Thank you so much! is there any way I could get that link? also, do you have a complete list of what I would need to do the job? I've got zero experience with this and want to learn how to work on this car (It was a graduation gift from my dad) Thanks so much!!
 
I am sure this is the one I watched (just copy and paste into YouTube). Also watch 'how to remove stuck brake drum' - with 2x 8mm x 1.25 bolts. Just incase the drum won't come off... Okay so from memory: big Phillips head screwdriver, pliers, 10 and 12mm socket, 10mm open ended spanner for brake line, brake cleaner, rags, toothbrush for cleaning backing plate, grease for threads, my handbrake lever block thing that bolts to outside of backing plate was seized, so I knocked the pin out and bashed out the steel insert, brake fluid flat blade screwdriver... Assemble your springs and shoes and then install onto backing plate - I installed and removed about a dozen times before getting it right...


Land Cruiser rear brake service, shoes, drum, emergency brake
adjustment
 
$900 for rad seems crazy expensive. There are lots of threads with mostly positive experience where people used after market rads. Search. I just went through pulling mine. I have AC so I needed to remove the condenser in order to remove a rad screw behind it. Removing the condenser requires removing the headlight trim. Not a big deal. A little time consuming but really pretty straight forward.
 
That's why we decided to do it ourselves, if my landcruiser has air conditioning, will I have to remove the condenser and head light trim? Is there a Manuel or tutorial that can help with this? I know I sound like an idiot, but I haven't spent a lot of time on working on this car, and I want to change that. Thanks for Al the help. The rad we have is the CSF 2708 one from parts geek. Had good reviews and is a 4 row instead of a 3 row.
 
 
for the big philips screw in the drum it is better to use a cheap smash driver, the ones that you hit with a hammer and then turn, also maybe get a fsm copy, it aint that hard, also if rusty and crusty replace brake lines, good luck.
 
Both the radiator and brakes are easy and a great place to start learning about doing your own work. I personally don't skimp on brakes. I would stay away from Chinese brake parts, especially the discs and drums. I've just had bad luck with them lasting. My big suggestion on the brakes is to do one side at a time. That way, where you don't know how a part goes on, you can look at the other side. It sure has saved me before.
 
rear brakes is a simple job just time consumptive. If you feel like the drums are rusted/seized on then there is a trick where you use a bolt in the hole on the face of the drum to "push" the drum away. Where ever you can go with Toyota OE parts, talk to @beno and the like to get genuine Toyota parts at a discount. Other than that there are plenty of threads that have part numbers for OE parts.

Agree with everyone else that you should take your time and do one side at a time so you have something to compare too. Grab 3 or so cans of brake cleaner because they are probably dirty as hell and take your time. FSMs are in my sig line.
 
not sure what you are referring to with the bolt in the face of the drum, but i can figure it out... I hope. Thanks for the FSM! is there a list of part numbers that will fit? and does any every use parts geek? they have a set of Beckarnley drums, shoes and everything else listed...
 
Crusher95 said:
not sure what you are referring to with the bolt in the face of the drum, but i can figure it out... I hope. Thanks for the FSM! is there a list of part numbers that will fit? and does any every use parts geek? they have a set of Beckarnley drums, shoes and everything else listed...
Click to expand...

The hole(s) that @gregnash are referring to should be threaded (see image below - the red arrows point to those two holes).

see: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/another-stuck-rear-brake-drum-removal-trick.611291/

In addition, you should also be able to identify the 5 holes through which the studs for mounting the wheel are used.

The yellow arrow points to the hole where you should see a single slotted retaining nut. Those can often times rust and be difficult to remove, but you must remove it (if it is in fact installed currently on the drums you have on the vehicle - often times they are left off...) in order to remove the drum. If it is installed and difficult to remove, you can soak it with PB Blaster catalyst (available from any Aftermarket Auto Parts store)...give 'em a good bath and let the PB blaster soak in (if you plan it right, you hit those pesky bolts the night or day(s) before you begin trying to remove them, giving the catalyst time to do it's work) OR you can use heat to heat up that nut and break it free.

Just a general tip on approaching these fixes as a beginner...each fix or job has a logic behind it...a series of steps in a procedure. That procedure (and those steps..for the most part) are laid out in the Factory Service Manual (FSM). Sometimes the FSM skips steps assuming that you know what those missing steps are or skips steps because they are explained somewhere else in the manual or fails to adequately describe the procedure clearly so it is missing steps.

When things become difficult to do, it is because you are not sure of what the next step is (explicit knowledge is gained through reading about or talking to people and learning from their experience) or if you know what the next step is and haven't done that before (tacit knowledge is gained through experience of having done that before)...this is called uncertainty.
When you know what to do and have done that before, everything is easy to do because there is little to no uncertainty. But when you are trying to figure out how to do something or are doing it for the first time, it is difficult and sometimes you get stuck (frustrated).
You get frustrated because your mind takes you away from the present to some expected future outcome (and you start telling yourself that "that fr#@$in' bolt should come off!!")...but when you get stuck, know that the logic of the process hasn't changed...just your expectation of how things 'should' go has.

The only thing that will help you solve that immediate problem (that step in the procedure that you are stuck on and is making your mind go crazy) is to go back to the basics of the logic of the process/procedure.
This logic is guided by cause and effect...if I do this, then the result will be that.

There are two sources for learning that process:
1) from someone else who has gone through that exact process (folks here on MUD, the FSM, other mechanics in your neighborhood)
2) the scientific process (the generation of knowledge through sets of experiments taking measurements of that cause and effect relationship)

Since you aren't reinventing the wheel here (figure of speech), there is no need to use #2, unless you are so advanced in your project that you are trying things that haven't been done to that vehicle or by anyone else in the community working on those vehicles.

So, when you notice yourself getting stuck (indicators are that you begin to feel emotions of panic or frustration or anger):

1) first try to reset your mind immediately and make sure you understand what it is that that step in the process is demanding that you do (consulting FSM)
2) once you feel you understand what it is you are supposed to do, try to re-frame the problem and see if you can solve it using a different approach (but still based on the causal "if...then..." relationship)
3) go to the community and explain what problem you are trying to solve, what you understand to be the causal relationship and what you have tried to do to solve the problem...because you have a very large community here on MUD that is willing to help, as you already know...

The reason why understanding this perspective is important is because riding this 'learning curve' will occur over and over as you work through other fixes on the Land Cruiser and confront other problems in life. And understanding how it works is the first step to mastering solving those problems!!

Drum Rear Brake FJ60_arrows.webp
 
Last edited:
Yes on the PartsGeek, they used to carry Rocky Mtn rotors which were OE spec, but the Toyota are still available. Make sure that when looking at things like rotors/drums/calipers/wheel cylinders that you go with Japanese or American made where you can, try your best to stay away from any Chicom stuff (Chinese made) as they are quite inferior for our trucks.

And SL is correct about the holes, just didn't have time to go into depth at work.
 
is the beckarnley chinese made or american/japanese?

Also, SL, thank you for the help. Ive got the brakes and radiator to completely replace within the next two weeks, and am mildy stressing out over it. On the radiator, the shop said it was a leak, should I do fan as well? and hoses?
 
Beck Arnley is pretty good stuff, O'Reilley's in house brand of Brake Best isn't bad either but for the actual hardware I would go for the Beck Arnley. For pads/shoes you can use inhouse brand stuff. For the wheel cylinders I believe ADVICS is the OE but not completely sure (brains not functioning properly today).
 
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