First gen rear drum brake backing plates

Hi all, im about to dive into a rear brake job, replacing basically anything i can in there. The backing plates are pretty darn eaten up by the maine winters this truck has seen and while its still holding the brake components together, the sealing rim is completely gone and i would feel silly putting all new components onto it. My question is: how much of a pain is it to replace, do i have to pull an axle shaft to get it off? Whats the cost to benefit on doing a job like this in my driveway. Thanks!

 

Good brakes are a wonderful thing.

If the floor is as eaten as your backing plate, I suppose you can save money "Flintstoning it"

 

Hah! The rest of the truck is actually in weirdly good shape for a 21 year old truck!

 

It takes some time, but it's not crazy hard work. Definitely DIY friendly. You'll have to slide the axles out to replace the backing plate, yeah.

It's probably a good idea to replace the seals on the axles while you have them out too.

 

Kinda of a big deal because you need a floor press and a pipe tool to get all that apart

Thats the reason a shop would charge about $1200 to do this

If you have all the tools....it still takes all day long


if you do it wrong and that seal leaks, you risk damaging/washing out the $80 bearing and the brake shoes.

on scale 1 to 10.....this is about a 7

 

Some have cut that sheild in half to avoid all this

but because all the shoe hardware anchors to this plate....better know what you're doing there

 

don't forget the brake drum gasket upon reinstall
does anybody ever use this part?

 

Yeah there is two seals.......inner and drum seal...

with it being '04 most likely abs.....so there would be two rings that have to be perfectly set on reassembly on each axle if you take all of it apart...
because of the tone ring.......making the job slightly harder, more tedious


that inner seal was redesign about a decade ago.....so changing just that seal without resetting the lock ring you have about a 50/50 chance of it leaking within 20K.......4 runners forum warns about this
most of em flip that inner lock ring now....so it tapers toward outboard, instead inboard

again the reason a shop charges so.........even then there's a 50/50 chance of em doing it wrong
if they dont do em all the time

 

have you attempted to remove the drums yet?
if you have, do they slide right off for you

 

Pardon my ignorance, but why a press is needed for axle (or backplate?) removal? Wouldn't the axle slide right out, and then the backplate goes of the back?

I've posted earlier, but these backplate are crazy expensive here in US compared to, say, Canadian prices, and that was before any tariffs.

 

You need a movie to see.....

.....@ 19min mark

Toyota Rear Axle Seal/Bearing Replacement (ABS Rearend) - YouTube

 

Well, it's decided: old backplates stay on. Aren't rusty enough.

 

Those back plates are getting harder to find and expensive....like $200+

front ones are like $30


every time I mess around back there.....I clean em and put another coat of the chassis epoxy...VHT


same with differential......those start at $1200 and go up






I've gone thru about 6 or 7 cans on everything under there in the last 4yrs.....front and back

everytime I work on something......I keep a can and sanding pad handy and clean and shoot everything convenient in that whole area....my whole rear leaf/axle area has maybe 5 or 6 coats by now
fluid flim inside the rails once a year.....and on any exposed threads under there

high temp thread lock coating the O2 studs


In winter I avoid driving in crap weather........when I have no choice, I try to rinse off under chassis within that week...
on a freshly painted black surface.....that shows up a white spotting coating everywhere
so ugly it makes your skin crawl until you wash it off


Probably driving in pouring rain mid/late winter is probably the worst thing you can do to these
.......that makes these not the best daily commuter.......unless you like hunting for discontinued parts
About half of us here are retirees with multiple vehicles.......so we dont have that commuting problem


these get horrible gas milage......a modern half ton 1500 truck does circles around these in that area

...Of course you're gonna need that extra gas......for driving the 1500 to the repair shop all the time....