Drilled handbrake drums ??

[kbushnz]

Hi All.

Quick question...
Has anyone drilled holes in handbrake drums?

My Toyota has disc / drum brakes on the rear and as soon as you go off road the handbrake gets full of crud and stops working.

I am sick of pulling them down and washing them out after each trip.

So hence the drilled question.

If it helps let the crud out...good.
Or just allows me to wash them out without pulling off the caliper...Great !

What say you all ...

Calvin

[Swamped]

Just guessing but it might mean you could wash em but it could let bigger stones in which would score the drum/shoes perhaps??

[jeremy]

Interesting idea... We've never bothered cleaning out and adjusting the hand brake - just got used to having no hand brake, but it would be nice to have a working one again.

I'm tempted to try the mr2 calipers, but a bit reluctant as they have smaller pads and pistons, although they're bigger than most other jap mechanical hand brake calipers.

[kbushnz]

If you could add another caliper opposite the factory one?
And just use it for the handbrake.

Calvin

[flyingbrick]

there are numerous companies which offer new calipers specifically for hand brake use (willwood iirc for example). I was once in a truck/trailer parts store and they had nice small calipers there for sale and the price was not bad.

Dont see why you could not drill a hole in ya drum for cleaning! actually i think its a bloody good idea.

You could always plug the hole with a rubber bung (repco and similar sell them) to keep shit out.

or..... permanently fit nice stainless hose fittings to each drum and link each side with a T piece......then have the 3rd hose off the T go to an accessible location with a clip on male garden hose fitting.

plug the hose in at home, turn on the tap and walk away

[Sadam_Husain]

the only way to cure the drum handbrake problem is to get rid of them and find some callipers with handbrakes on them, I stuck subaru ones on my flatdeck cruiser and the brakes and handbrake have never been better

[kbushnz]

I think I have a set of old ones that were getting worn to limits.
Might drill them and swap them over for a few months..

Calvin

[IcedJohnno]

Yes did this with the 2nd rear axle rebuild, about a year and a 1/2 ago. At the same time I put on new shoes, pads and discs.

I set the brand new discs up on my mill and drilled the holes in at an angle, so there is a low point just outboard of the shoe edge to get the mucky fluid to drain out of.
Can also be done using a drillpress and a 1" block of steel as a spacer to get the correct angle.

I also drilled the holes (2 per disc for balance, that are opposite each other) the correct size to tap for a 1/2" BSP bung. For those that dont know that is about a 22mm hole as Pipe sizing is based on the inside diametre of the pipe.
I've never bothered to get a round tuit to tap them, even though I 've got a home workshop that is 3 times as well equipped as the manufacturing shop I am currently maintaining.

When I bolt my alloy wheels on in the correct phasing, I end up with one of these holes showing in the valley of the spokes. (6 stud but 5 spokes)

The theory is that I can then jack up the truck, put the hose in thru this hole and sluice out the mud, which drains out via the other hole. I also spin the wheel as I do this.

Funnily enough at the next warrant 3 weeks later Rick said the HB leaver come way up tooooo far. I pointed out the extra tube spacer that I had put under tha adjustment nut & over the rod, at the HB lever and he laughed as it still was too much lever travel. We ended up whipping the calipers and discs off and taking the 3 week old shoes out and building up the actuating pivot points, thus giving the shoes a bigger total size. And this was with Brand new good quality Discs and performance shoes.

I still have to adjust my shoes up each warrant ( something I can do thru the same hole with the wheel still on ) but at least the mud gets to be gone sooner and the springs and retainers don't get ripped out so often.

Without bungs you could argue that the mud will get in easier. The truth is that Mr Toyoda F ed up with this design and the mud gets in easily anyway. At least this way it is easy come and easy go and I think the mud gets centrifuged out.

At the same time, I got rid of the lower part of the shields. This means that all those stones that we drop into the inner part of the wheel rim down here in the S Island don't end up jamming as easily between the shield and the rim and then wedging themselves in there, grooving my rims.


Been all good for me.
cheers IJ

[philipw]

Hi Calvin how are you going mate?
have you ever thought about plumbing into the rear brake lines and putting in a hydrolic hand brake?
as that is what we use in the rally cars and i am thinking about doing it to my truck soon
Phil

[kbushnz]

Hi Phil

have you ever thought about plumbing into the rear brake lines and putting in a hydrolic hand brake?

Sounds interesting but wont that require a cert?
I think only competition cars can get them like log booked cert-ed rally cars or drift cars.
Don't think our trucks can be certed for hydraulic hand brakes.
But its the easiest to do and cheap.

Also for those people out there who run these trucks..
NZ Brake Co have after market shoes for about 60 bucks a set.
P/N G9025. (They import them from time to time)
They are the only guys I have found who do them apart from factory.
And I ain't spending $90 a shoe...

Last time I did them, I got my old ones re lined in Hamilton.
But took a week and truck was off the road.

Thanks IJ for the write up on your drilled drums.
Good to see some one else has tried it.
Might do that to my spare set.....
The stone issue is not a real problem up here in the North, but have found a nail in mine only just this weekend.
And its not one I use around the house so must have come from Woodhill...

Cheers
Calvin