2nd gen rear drum brake adjustment mechanism

I can't find any good information on this topic. Half of the posts here say the rear drum brakes will self-adjust when reversing and braking, the other half says it only adjusts when using the parking brake.

I found this old video of a guy explaining how it works on the 4runner. Does anyone know if the Tacoma uses the same mechanism?

 

Yes, the very same mechanism.

 

Ive heard both ways too.

In general, self adjusters will self adjust but they don’t work perfectly. Sometimes they don’t work at all. It’s best to get in there and manually adjust it.

I worked out of a International 5 ton. It needed to be manually adjusted every month.

 

I found a different video that makes me think differently. This one is for a '14 Corolla but the drums on this one look more similiar to the one on the Tacoma.



The guy in this video is actually trying to figure out the same thing about how the rear drums adjust.

If you go to the 3:15 mark, he does 2 tests:
- Parking brake test - He pulls 6 clicks on the hand brake and you can see the rear shoe pivot outward, the front shoe doesn't move much and the adjuster isn't changed, nor does the "sheet metal object" (the adjuster clicker) move much.
- Foot brake test - After his wife presses the pedal farther the 2nd time, you can see the adjuster pawl move down (you can even see the star gear rotate if you look closely) and then hear the clicks as the pawl moves back up against the resistance of the star gear. The 3rd time she presses it too much and the adjuster comes off its tracks.

The problem with his method/video is the drum is off (so he is not seeing what happens under normal operation), but the drum being off also simulates the same thing as shoes that are worn down (the amount of travel between the shoe and the drum is significant). When his wife pressed the foot brake the 3rd time, you can see the adjuster pivot backwards as it is being pulled down by the spring below it. On the right/forward shoe you can see the square "window" where the pawl is pivoting forward/backward.

My feeling now is that, this particular drum design, is self-adjusting through regular driving and wear down of the shoes. No need to gun it in reverse and slama on the brakes, and clearly the parking brake only moved the rear shoe back which had no effect on the adjuster. That being said, this method is imprecise and could still warrant manual adjustment.

 

Here is my rear drums pulled out.

Because I change tires between my off-road and street tires frequently. I fiddle with my star gear while im there.

The system is not perfect, but I fiddle with it where I cannot move my rear wheel when the parking break is engaged.
No I don’t care if I’m dragging the pads a bit, because I live in a very hilly area. I don’t want to use my parking chock all the time.

It took me awhile to understand how it works. My best advice is to pull the drum out and tinker.

 

What I can tell you is that I have a 2010 AC MT...And my parking break is presently a BITCH...It sticks all the time. I have a replacement cable set (Toyota - it took 6 months to ship) but not the time to swap it out...SOOoo if I HAVE to set my brake i have to be sure I can back out....and then SLAM on the brakes to disengage the stuck parking cable...

So reversing and braking "unsitcks" a stuck parking brake...That I know...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuVrd5pUbA