Prepping for State Inspection
Interestingly in Houston and a few counties in Dallas all OBD1 vehicles older than 1995 (barring the 25 year exception rule) have to go through a "simulated" road test on a dyno for emissions testing. Every place I went to that said they could do it either had a malfunctioning dyno when I showed up or (and I could not believe this) did not have a mechanic who could drive a manual...
So after many struggles I finally found a place that could do it and was immediately told I would not pass due to my emergency brake not stopping the car quickly enough. Since I only had another week and half to get this car inspected, registered, and titled before facing fines from the state I went on a mission to fix my lazy e-brake cable. Originally I assumed that the rear drum brakes were worn and the shoes were not contacting the drums so I swung by Autozone and picked up some new shoes. I pulled off the drums and to my surprise the shoes looked almost brand new! I love it when a previous owner is honest. All the hardware looked good, though I sprayed everything down with brake cleaner and scrubbed some gunk off of the various components. I wish I had taken more photos but I am still getting used to documenting everything. I did notice on the passenger rear drum that there looked to be a very small leak from the brake (wheel) cylinder. It was so small that I consider it inconsequential, I'll just keep my eye on the brake fluid levels and check it again in a few months. It was awesome to get to see the inside of a drum brake, I had only ever been exposed to the workings of disc brakes so the mechanical simplicity of the drum was a welcome surprise.
I had read on a 4Runner forum that one symptom of a weak e-brake was that the shoes needed to be adjusted. Supposedly, you could pull the parking brake handle back and forth and eventually the shoes would contact the drums when the cable was pulled. I tried this and got no results, though I suspect this would work eventually for someone else just not in my case for a reason I will describe later on. Below is a picture of my setup after putting the wheels back on when I figured out the shoes were in good shape.
After tracing the e-brake cables from the rear axle I found the mechanical assembly responsible for engaging the rear shoes when the e-brake handle is pulled (see diagram below). An arm is pulled by the e-brake handle via a cable that runs from the cabin down past the firewall and under the vehicle, the arm then in turn pulls the two separate lines that run to each rear drum to engage the drum brakes.
What I discovered was the the e-brake cable coming from the handle in the cabin to the assembly was stretched, so it was not fully engaging the rear drums even at full stretch. There is no way to adjust this front cable, but luckily Toyota foresaw this and added in an adjustment nut (pictured below). This adjustment nut is actually two 12mm nuts that sandwich the assembly on a threaded rod. utilizing two 12mm wrenches I was able to break each of them loose. If your truck has been up north you may want to spray a penetrating liquid on this as even mine was difficult and it was an Arizona and New Mexico truck. I was able to adjust the rear cables so that they were tight enough that even my stretched front cable could fully engage the rear shoes. It is important to note that if you do this adjustment yourself that you change the location of the adjustment nuts while you have the e-brake handle
pulled out. If you adjust the rear shoes to be tight on the drums while the e-brake handle is pushed into the dash (in the disengaged position) then you will be dragging your rear brakes.
Disclaimer: If you follow my instructions and damage your vehicle I am not responsible. If you over tighten the rear cables they can snap. Be smart and take your time.