As I was driving my FJ45 this past April I noticed tat whenever I braked it was pulling to the right. Jacking up the left front wheel and examining the brakes it was clear that I had a brake cylinder the had a blown seal. Damn! It only lasted 51 years!
When I looked at the shoes were pretty worn too I ordered in new cylinders and shoes from Kurt. The shoes were in stock but they told me that the cylinders were special and they ordered them in from Toyota. After a time they told me that Toyota kept cancelling their order so I got the Toyota part numbers from them and checked with our friends at Stevinson. They said that the cylinders were in stock in the Toyota warehouse in Ontario California so I ordered them in. I figured if one blew out then the other three should be replaced along with all four shoes.
Long story short, it took several months to get my non-USA brake cylinders into my hands, and over the past couple of evenings I got everything replaced. I still have to bleed them, my mitivac is frigging useless, the seal between the reservoir and the cap is shot.
Blown seal
New brake cylinder
Left side ready for the drum.
Right side
Drum on, adjusted wheel cylinders
Tire back on, ready to bleed
I gotta say that these three inch wide drum brakes kick serious patootie, they'll put your nose on the windshield unless I'm hauling a ton of gravel or rip rap, when in which case that'll smooth out the ride from the one ton suspension. Drums are definitely more work than disks but they stop like nobodies business on this truck.
