Gen 6 Rear Brake Shoes

[simon walker]

Can anyone help me?

I have a 1996 Celica 1.8 ST and i am having a few problems with the hand brake, first of all the hand brake cable seized up so i have replaced these but now i am having problems with the hand brake working, if the car is on a hill facing down words the hand brake works fine (3 clicks) but if the car is facing up words the handbrake doesn't hold and has to be pulled on a lot further, it is as if the the shoes are floating about within the drum, after numerous attempts at solving this myself and then taking it into the garage i am still no closer to figuring out whats wrong.

I have had drawings from Toyota showing the parts the disc's consist of and all the parts are there.

I have replaced the shoes and hand brake cables but prior to doing this the hand brake used to lock on if you put it straight into reverse after being parked, since replacing these parts this problem has now been solved but i am now having the problem with the hand brake not holding on a hill.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

[T600]

Strange.

Not unusual for it to be stronger in one direction than another, but of course it should hold on quite a steep hill either way.

Personally I'd always leave a car on a hill in gear and with its wheels pointing towards the kerb so there would be no risk of it rolling away, though that's not really the point. It could well fail its MOT in this condition, though if it holds well enough forwards it could pass; I'm not sure if they test it in both directions.

Are the brakes in question the main rear brakes or are they used for the parking brake only?

[simon walker]

The brakes are just used for the parking only as it has disc brakes all round with the rear ones having shoes in a drum in the middle.

I talked to the mechanic who looked at them for me and he said it would pass the MOT which is good, its just an annoying problem that i could do with sorting.

[Rmachines]

I would imagen it will be because of the self servo effect shoes have on drums, it acts like a wedge, the more you push on it the more it locks up, this will only happen with the leading shoe, When you are facing down on a hill the shoes will lock when you face up on a hill the leading shoe becomes the trailing shoe etc.. Have you replaced the fitting kit? make sure there is not excessive corrosion where the retaning pins sit, this can cause to much play and like you say, the shoes will be loose and "float about"

[n0z]

ive also got an st and the brakes system is the same as the 2.0 GT, i also had a problem with the rear brakes as my car was sat around b4 purchase.

if its the self servo effect shoes have on drums could you not possibly try and breakers and get some rears drums to replace them if your handy with mechanics urself?

[martin_longbow]

The best solution I could get to this issue was by careful adjustment of the brake shoes. The adjustment on my model is via a small access hole when the hub/disk is fitted. I thnk the solution is as tight as you can get them without them rubbing, once you do that check handbrake and release bit by bit till your happier, but do let us know you this worked out.

I think as said the problem is because the brake shoes sort of float at the bottom of the backing plate, they sit in fine but unlike other systems there is nothing for the bottom of the shoe to sit on.

I finally got to a position where they rear shoes dont rub, they do grip going forwards and release going back, they do lock on as described when going back the way. At first I though I was missing something too, despite the fact I had pics and diagrames telling me everything was present and fitted.

Got a look at another Gen 6 and it was the same..

[ksporry]

I have a similar problem with my hand brake shoes. One of them is quite tight with a spring holding it close to the axle side. But the other is flopping about. The spring on that one is very loose, mostly I think because the pin that goes through the spring and the shoe is a LOT longer than the other one. I was thinking about replacing the shoes, because they appear to be fairly worn.

At the moment the shoes seem to lock the wheel, probably due to the one flopping around. What surprices me is that I never had any problems with it before.

Are there any kits for these pins and springs around? If so where can I get them?

The best solution I could get to this issue was by careful adjustment of the brake shoes. The adjustment on my model is via a small access hole when the hub/disk is fitted. I thnk the solution is as tight as you can get them without them rubbing, once you do that check handbrake and release bit by bit till your happier, but do let us know you this worked out.

I think as said the problem is because the brake shoes sort of float at the bottom of the backing plate, they sit in fine but unlike other systems there is nothing for the bottom of the shoe to sit on.

I finally got to a position where they rear shoes dont rub, they do grip going forwards and release going back, they do lock on as described when going back the way. At first I though I was missing something too, despite the fact I had pics and diagrames telling me everything was present and fitted.

Got a look at another Gen 6 and it was the same..

[Leeky]

yeah sounds like the shoes just need adjusting to sit tighter.