Rear drum brakes help

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coldtaco

coldtaco

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Location
Anchorage, AK
As some of you may remember last fall on my vacation, last day drive home, my rear brakes/bearings overheated for what ever reason, never really figured it out. Thought it might have been the bearings and I had adjusted them twice on the side of the road. Got them to stop getting too warm and took it easy home. Ordered new bearings and all brake parts. Rebuilt the rear axles. With winter and all it took a while to get this done. This spring I drove the Ute around town to see how everything went. Brakes worked good and parking brake worked good. But after driving around a while at different speeds the drums where getting pretty warm again, one drum got up to about 165F measured with the infrared heat gun. Took the brakes apart and re installed per FMS, again. Drove around again and after a while the rear brakes got pretty warm again, didn’t get up to 165F again but that may have just been due to not doing the exact test drive as the last time. I’m at a loss. Anyone with any insight? Thanks.
 
coldtaco said:
As some of you may remember last fall on my vacation, last day drive home, my rear brakes/bearings overheated for what ever reason, never really figured it out. Thought it might have been the bearings and I had adjusted them twice on the side of the road. Got them to stop getting too warm and took it easy home. Ordered new bearings and all brake parts. Rebuilt the rear axles. With winter and all it took a while to get this done. This spring I drove the Ute around town to see how everything went. Brakes worked good and parking brake worked good. But after driving around a while at different speeds the drums where getting pretty warm again, one drum got up to about 165F measured with the infrared heat gun. Took the brakes apart and re installed per FMS, again. Drove around again and after a while the rear brakes got pretty warm again, didn’t get up to 165F again but that may have just been due to not doing the exact test drive as the last time. I’m at a loss. Anyone with any insight? Thanks.
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What type of hub and bearings does it have? Full floating axle type? Did you go overboard with bearing preload?

Is the heat coming from the hub or the drum?

Are you able to drive several kilometres anywhere without touching the brakes at all? If you can, do so, coast to a stop, and see if the drums stay cool. If they stay cool then they are only getting hot when you use the brakes. Brakes can get surprisingly hot just with normal applications. If they get hot without using the brakes then your shoes are dragging and you need to back them off.
 
coldtaco said:
HJ75
Hubs stay relatively cool, the drum gets hot
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Then as already suggested, the brake shoes are either dragging or you are just using the brakes. Google says 150 to 400F for drum brakes under normal driving conditions. FWIW
 
If it were me, I’d also check the following:
1. Ensure bell crank is not binding.
2. Confirm bell crank on hub is adjusted within factory spec
3. Ensure e-brake cable inside hub is routed correctly.
4. Confirm plunger on brake booster is set to the correct depth and is returning to its home position when pedal is released. I like to check this after a couple depressions of the brake pedal.

FWIW, when I’m just driving in normal conditions with the occasional stop, I see around 80-100DEG F on the drums in ~65DDEG F ambient

Hope this helps. I had a similar issue on my 60 and it was a sticky bell crank on the hub.
 
Every thing is new, everything is free moving. I also adjusted the handle for the hand brake. I will try a longer constant drive and try to find a place I can coast to a stop. I can’t imagine brake drum warmer than 180F is normal. Anything warmer than 200F I would imagine would cook the paint off, to me that would mean it’s too hot🤷‍♂️
 
Hi
2x on the advise from @DrRock .
I assume you adjusted the brakes correctly? It is a bit of a tedious process. (If you need advise on this: Let me know).
If your coasting test proofs it's the brake and every thing concerning the brake assembly and adjustment is correct:
Maybe they overheat because all the brake energy goes over the rear drums only? In other words: Do your front brakes join in braking properly?
I suggest to take the rig to a brake test facility and have the brake performance of all wheels checked.
Culprit could be seized front brake pistons, worn disc and pads or a seized LSPV. (A seized LSPV however usually leads to the rear brakes locking).
Good Luck Ralf
 
@coldtaco, there is also a long thread on this topic in the 60 section. One possible root cause was the use of non OEM brake shoes. I’ll try to find the thread later and post it here.

EDIT: Here is the thread over on the 60 forum. Some recent findings are at the end. Hope this helps;

CruiserTrash

Thread 'Drum brakes over-adjusting and getting hot after rebuild'

So this has me stumped. I rebuilt the drum brakes on my 60 about three weeks ago. I did one side at a time so that I could use the other side as a cheat sheet and not misplace stuff. I took the drums off at Solid Axle Summit and had a bunch of knowledgeable cruiser heads verify that I did the installation correctly, including people who run Land Cruiser specific shops ... but they are over adjusting themselves. The drums and backing plate get pretty darn hot, right on the verge of not being able to keep your hand on them. Every few days I back the star wheels off again, so I'm dealing with...
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Cheers, James
 
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DrRock said:
@coldtaco, there is also a long thread on this topic in the 60 section. One possible root cause was the use of non OEM brake shoes. I’ll try to find the thread later and post it here.

Cheers, James
Click to expand...

+1 on this...

Had a similar ongoing issue on my LJ79 and I believe it was due to using non oem brake shoes and the clearance between the auto-adjuster hardware on the shoes' mounting pin. Someone on that thread suggested adding a washer behind the auto-adjusting arm to minimise sideways movement. It seems to have done the trick for me.
 
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