Rear Brake shoes twist when applied - Parking Brake

[toyv84x4]

When I apply the parking brake it is weak and doesn't hold the truck at all. I have adjusted the start adjusters each side and the cable tension (afterwards) to full tension.
I noticed that on application the shoes twist and can be seen sticking out past the rotor and bending the backing plate out! What's wrong here? The shoe? The Rotor? The shoe holder parts? The backing plate is rusty and lacks strength but I thought the shoes would stay aligned? Shoes have good thickness and rotors don't appear to be worn? Before I order parts or start welding anything is this a common thing? I have older trucks that have more rust and the parking brake works. I need the parking brake or I wouldn't care and leave it park.

 

[Elvira]

It almost sounds like the retaining pins and springs that hold the shoes to the backing plates are weak or broken. You will have to remove what ever is needed and inspect properly. The mounting hardware for brake shoes do wear out, they get weak, rust and sometimes break. If you do decide to investigate, they sell a hardware kit that replaces all the springs, pins and get the new star wheels same time...unless your old ones are very very good shape.

I meant to add, if your backing plates are that bad, rusted out, this is the time to replace them.

 

[toyv84x4]

Yeah I'm ordering new backing plates and more hardware. It was actually all new a while back after I exploded the diff when the pinion nut came off. Star wheel etc look new. A pin broke a while back and fell out (got stuck in the drum) I think I will add new rotors and shoes as well as the time I am wasting digging into something so straightforward is lost. I still don't quite understand the park brake cabling; it seems to pull on one cable more than the other and could do with a mod to make it like other trucks that work better (in my opinion) Love the Ram though of course!

 

[toyv84x4]

I got this resolved back in December. Both brands of rear shoes I had were made of pressed steel. This process makes angled edges to the shoes where they sit on the rear axle brackets and the star tensioning wheel expanders. Don't know how nobody else has had this problem? Maybe it's typical for those doing brakes daily but I have never noticed this. Major manufacturing defect if you ask me! When the cable was pulled it literally sent each shoe off at an angle and prevented a flat friction contact with the rotors. Older set of shoes also narrower and had soaked in axle oil from leaky seals but the twisting occurred before that. I wonder how long rear axle seals actually last? They were new when the pinion nut fell off (but that's another story)

I ground down the shoes so the points of contact were flat and not angled and everything resolved after setting up the adjusters and cable properly. Best E-Brake - Park Brake the truck has ever had. Cost me new shoes, rotors (not needed), backing plates (not really needed). All done.

 

[Daw14]

Do you remember what brand they are ? Nice job on the fix.

 

[3pedals]

Whoa…I’ll have to take a look at my 2008 one of these days. My ebrake hasn’t been able to hold the truck for the last couple hundred thousand miles. Dealer “adjusted” ebrake several years ago and pedal has a lot of resistance since like they tightened cable, but still doesn’t hold truck for ****. Truck does have 400k miles but no rust.

 

[Daw14]

I got this resolved back in December. Both brands of rear shoes I had were made of pressed steel. This process makes angled edges to the shoes where they sit on the rear axle brackets and the star tensioning wheel expanders. Don't know how nobody else has had this problem? Maybe it's typical for those doing brakes daily but I have never noticed this. Major manufacturing defect if you ask me! When the cable was pulled it literally sent each shoe off at an angle and prevented a flat friction contact with the rotors. Older set of shoes also narrower and had soaked in axle oil from leaky seals but the twisting occurred before that. I wonder how long rear axle seals actually last? They were new when the pinion nut fell off (but that's another story)

I ground down the shoes so the points of contact were flat and not angled and everything resolved after setting up the adjusters and cable properly. Best E-Brake - Park Brake the truck has ever had. Cost me new shoes, rotors (not needed), backing plates (not really needed). All done.

? Brand ?

 

[toyv84x4]

I think they were unbranded. If I come across the box I will update. Most of these shoes are made of the same metal plate and could come angled. I would check and grind them flat so they sit at 90 degrees and don't twist. Brakes still working solid 20K later and I use my park brake daily.