Brake shoe tabs worn off

2002 Dodge Dakota 3.9

I mostly work on my vehicles myself, this time life didn’t allow that so I took it to a shop. They replaced the rear shoes and the drums.

After that, I heard scraping from the brakes, but I let it go because it was mild and I hoped it was a break-in issue.

Over the next few weeks the sound got more prominent. I identified it was coming from the driver side rear drum and took it apart to look at it.

When I took the Passenger Side and Driver Side apart to copmpare them, I found that the lower tabs had been complete worn off.

I have pictures, but I can’t post them with this because of my “new user” account restriction

You can go to reinsmith.net under Projects --> Car Projects --> 2002 Dodge Dakota --> Photos --> 4/21/2010 if you want to view them.

The corresponding damage inside the drum is also very apparent.

We ran through the measurements comparing it to the good side, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what is out of alignment.

My only conclusion is either a defective part or it’s something in the wheel hub is bent. It’s almost as if the drum went on too far on the bottom.

I mostly curious to see if anyone has seen this before so I can verify the shop actually corrects the problem.

Thanks in advance for your input.

M

i had a look at your pics. IMO the shoes were not seated correctly, This caused the shoes to run against the drum. It was not as noisy to begin with as it was just the tab but as more of the shoe started to touch it it was louder. can you move the whole assembly back and forth?

Thanks for your reply TEAMFAST

Yes there was some movement in the Assembly.

The rubbing "seems" to have stopped after putting it back together.

However, the damage is done and It's at the shop now for them to make right (I hope)

We'll see what they say.

Thanks again

M

They are warrantying the work right?

Originally Posted by MONKYMAN

They are warrantying the work right?

your at 666 posts MONKYMAN!!!

I talked to them when I dropped it off. The service manager was pretty tight lipped

(i guess I scared him with the pictures i had printed out and brought along )

I'm going to give them the chance to do right without me telling them to do right.

Then I'll stomp on them if I have to.

I'd like to be pleasantly surprised that they would choose to do that on their own.

Maybe I'm hoping for too much

M

I think you need 5 posts to put up pictures. (Only one to go.)
I haven't looked at the pictures, however a drum that wasn't turned to the correct depth or has wear due to pad contact and wasn't turned to the full width will rub.

Well they made it right, no charge

AND apparently they did the intial grinding themselves.

They said they had a bad batch of pads and they ground them down to fit.

I almost can't believe they admitted it!!!

I gotta give them props for that I guess.

So I'm gonna pick it up tonight, I think I'll yank the wheel and have a look

PS - If this is my 5th post I'll tack the picture up

Here are the BEFORE pics as promised:





click here to view them full size

I'll post the AFTER pictures as soon as I can

M

They sound like honest people! Glad to hear it all worked out alright.

Hahaha Uppy! I noticed that right when I logged in tonight! LOL!

if they did the grinding then what was the noise?

That's interesting. (Post #9) to see the edge pads cut off.
Are the same pads on the opposite side of the shoes flat or slightly curled-up pushing the pads out at the bottom?
I re-read your original post and see that the the drums were also replaced so the turning issue i mentioned is mute.
It's likely the brake backplate is bent outward on the drivers side. This would also explain the rubbing on the backplate (at the bottom edge) as well as the shoe tabs rubbing.
Does the area were the backplate and drum meet appear the same on both sides and equal distance all the way around?

My brother and I are probably going to pull it apart tonight, because we are both very curious what the scoop is.

I agree, we were talking about that today and the pads alone don’t explain the rubbing on the backplate.

I guess I’m a little obsessed but I like to know the causes of this kind of thing. Experience pays off in the future.

Anyway, I’ll get some more info tonight.

M

Your truck is your baby! You have every right to be as protective and concerned!

When i had my truck in for alignment i brought a pair of safety glasses with me and stood no more than 5ft away from anyone touching my truck! Obsessive... Damn right! But worth being concerned.

I didn't get the chance to take the brake apart last night, but I'm sorta glad I didn't

on my way to work this morning I started smelling brake, so I pulled over and the left rear drum was hot (burn your fingers in less than a sec hot)

right rear is as cool as air.

So it's back to the Mechanic for another try

Is it possible that the wheel hub is bent or something?? Something that could be underlying this problem that I might be missing? (and the mechanic is missing as well)

THis is getting annoying!

M

That sucks your having that many problems, but if the brake system didn't have a problem before you brought it to the shop, I don't see why it would now. My guess would be that they got something misadjusted when they put that side back together. They've done good so far so see if they can't fix it right this time, after all these problems I'd be asking them for a free oil change or something, but don't know that I'd even trust them doing that after all the problems they've already had.

I don't think the "wheel hub" (axle) is bent. If it was it would only rub on one spot on the drum and were each tab is on the shoes.
Something is out of alignment on the left side for it to overheat. It's possible that the shoe is running crooked relative to the drum. (A bent backplate that the shoes are attached to will cause this to occur.) Also I have come across shoes that don't have the proper arch for a new drum. They will over-tighten the self-adjusters causing drag and also tend to lock-up.

Thanks B-300.

I got it back last night with a new Drum and it's still doing it today.

I just feel like they're spitballing at this point and aren't really looking at it.

I'm going to take it apart myself this weekend and start looking at the suggestions everyone has made and see if I can find the problem.

Going to start with the pads again and the backplate.

Thanks for everyone's help, I REALLY appreciate it!

M

I bet the backplate was hit with a hammer (acidentlly) in attempt to remove a rusted drum in the past. Take a good look at that.
You should be able tot make a jig that will bolt on to the axle flange (using two lugnuts) from coathanger wire an bend it until it's close to one of the points that the shoe tabs sit on with the axle pushed in, then turn the axle around to see tha these points are all the same distance from your pointer.
This will confirm if the backplate is bent and needs a smack with a hammer to straighten.

B-300

A friend of mine just suggested the same thing yesterday.

That's the first thing I'm going to try!

Thanks for your help

M