Drum Brakes too tight?

Just got my truck back from a shop for a leaking drivers side rear axle seal/drum brake service. Long story short, the guy had my truck for a week and the experience with this shop was a complete nightmare.

I picked it up yesterday and all the original issues and extra things that went wrong while my vehicle was in his hands have seemingly been resolved. However, I’ve noticed that it feels like maybe the rear brakes are too tight.

I notice it the most after the truck has been sitting for a while. My driveway is on a slight incline. Normally if I put it in neutral with my foot off the brake, it’ll start rolling down the driveway (as expected). I can put it into drive and it does the same thing. The last couple times I’ve driven my truck after it had been sitting for a while, it won’t move in neautral or when I put it into gear.

I give it a little nudge of gas and it finally moves forward. After that it seems fine and I don’t notice the issue in normal driving around town and what not. It did the same thing on flat ground this morning after being parked overnight and it just takes some gas to get it moving.

I’m about to jack it up and see if I can spin the tire and I’m reading up on how to adjust the shoes myself. I’m just wondering if I’m on the right track for resolving the issue. Taking it back to the mechanic who did the work last week is out of the question.

 

Did they change the shoes?
If they didn't it could be that they are contaminated with gear oil and are sticking to the drum when they sit.

 

Could have also spun the gear/wheel cylinder to tight.
Has there been a lot of moisture/rain /snow in your area. Typically this happens after a car wash and the truck is left to sit with the e-brake engaged.

 

The parking brake cable has to be removed to change the axle seal.
I’d pull the drum off and take a look, see if anything looks odd.
Particularly around the parking brake mechanism.

I dab a bit of brake grease on the pivot. And the horse shoe clips always aggravate me.
I just buy new ones. I don’t reuse the old ones unless I have to.


@Dm93 has a good point there.
I never experienced that problem when mine leaks, but it can be a cause for sticking shoes.

 

I don’t believe he did. I was told he was able to clean them up well enough and re-use them. They were new as of 2019 but they were pretty soaked from the leaky seal. Will they eventually wear enough to get the contaminated surface worn off? Or do I need new shoes?

 

The shoes will sweat out oil and the drums will absorb it.

Also your parking brake cable housings are likely cracked as well, if you get under your truck and look at the cable to the drum connection this is usually the case.

They simply need to clean it up and re-adjust it for now.

 

Just some rain recently. I’m in SC so the truck never sees snow. I’ve also been in this area for almost 10 years and never had this issue. I also rarely use my e-brake.

 

I dropped it off on Monday this past week, picked it up Tuesday. Crawled underneath and he had failed to install the 2 bolts that hold the e-brake cable in place. He also forgot to plug the ABS sensor back in and the connection where the brake line connects to the cylinder was leaking.

Needless to say, I took it back to him Tuesday afternoon and I didn’t get it back til yesterday, since he had to disassemble everything to put the two bolts back in for the e-brake, then reassemble (and fix the other issues)

This pic shows what I found on Tuesday after he said it was done:

 

I jacked up the rear and both wheels spin fine but I had just driven it around to run some errands about an hour ago. I’ll pull the wheel and drum off to check over everything.

 

Depends how much oil they absorbed, if they just got a slight amount they are usually ok but if they got saturated there's no good way to get them clean.
It likely won't hurt anything but it may cause them to be sticky when they are cold and may affect brake performance.

 

Considering the cost of a pair of rear brake shoes, I would never reuse contaminated brakes.

I'm a lifelong drum brake adjuster and I would say this Tacoma is one of the hardest vehicles to adjust the rear drums manually. I'd love to hear my rear brake shoes lightly scraping the drum.

 

@6 gearT444E i know you thought the same thing I did when you saw this thread. Don’t lie.

 

I had 2002 Tacoma OR and had same condition of stuck rear brakes due to a clogged up breather on the axle housing. Pressure buildup blew out left side axle seal releasing gear oil onto brakes. Had it for 17 years and painted the underside every few years but still rusted. Must have clogged the breather with paint.

 

Yeah if the mechanic forgot bolts and abs sensor I’m doubting his ability.. if those brake shoes were splashed with gear oil they should be replaced. They will swell and that’s just no good