02 Jeep Liberty Rear brake problems

[WalleyeChaser]

This Vehicle has rear drum brakes. I have recently replaced the rear shoes, hardware, cylinders and drums. I have had the things apart 4 or 5 times now because of a draging/excessively hot smell on the drivers side that I can't seem to remedy. I made sure to turn the adjusters all the way back in. I found a picture and video on youtube and everything is put back together right. Any ideas as to what the cause of this is? I even greased the heck out of the friction areas on the backerplate.

[jmd1]

might want to google jeep liberty tsb and recalls. Sounds like there is an issue with the parking brake part of the rear drums but also there are several things for the front end. Good luck

[Macgyver55]

Sounds to me like the emergency brake cable is sticking and not letting the actuator lever retract all the way.

[fishhuntwork]

How about out of round drums?

[WalleyeChaser]

Thanks for the input! I Reset the parking brake in the center console, test drove and it was still hot. I then unhooked the parking brake completly from the drivers side and drove again and it still gets hot with very minimal braking during the test drive. I then jacked it up and put it into gear, passenger side spins free, I stopped it with the parking brake and the drivers side will spin with the accelerator pushed and stop almost immediatley after letting off the accelerator with a very definite dragging sound. My guess is a defective cylinder maybe? I have done brakes on several diff. vehicles and have never had them kick my you know what like this! I am a body tech and have never had this much trouble with mechanical and I do quite a bit of light mechanical day to day. I have to admit defeat and take it to the mechanic.

[Macgyver55]

Did you check to make sure the primary and secondary shoes are in the proper positions on both sides?

The shoe with the shorter brake pad surface area goes toward the front of the vehicle and the shoe with the longer surface area goes to the rear.

[efgh]

I would check the shoes too, to make sure they are positioned right. Also replace the return springs on the shoes. You might have got them hot enough to lose tension. Check the brake fluid resiv. might be too full and not allow the fluid to all return.

[WalleyeChaser]

The shoes can only go on one way because of how the parking brake arm attaches to the one shoe. The fluid is 2/3 of the way to the max line. Its at the mechanic right now, hopefully not costing me too much! Thanks for the help guys.

[WalleyeChaser]

Found the problem! The shoe on the left was a mis-manufactured carquest part(notice the low friction block placement) while the shoe on the right is the napa shoe with the correct friction block placement. The friction block on the carquest part was set too low causing it to catch on the drum in a way that caused the whole assembly to rotate and wedge/bind inside the drum without being able to release.

Not knocking carquest at all as I have used their parts for 12+ years without a problem. Its just a prime example of an outsourced(China) part vs. the USA built tru-stop shoes from napa. Details that get overlooked!

I actually commend Carquest on their service as they let me return both sets of shoes (I tried a second set), turned the drums for free to fix anything that might have happened to them from the excessive pad dragging, and covered the $6.50 core charge I could have gotten back from napa for the shoes that I ended up throwing in the garbage. Good to see that there is still places and people around that have outstanding customer service!

[Macgyver55]

Glad you found the problem. Thats why I asked if they were in the right position, but being manufactured wrong would definitely give the same result. Now, I usually hold the new shoes up and compare them to the originals before installing them, because I ran into a similar deal once where I got 3 primary shoes and only 1 secondary in a box set.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Quote:

Its just a prime example of an outsourced(China) part vs. the USA built tru-stop shoes from napa.

Try putting a set of NAPA True Stops in a Ford Escape. They do not fit as the friction meterial is to thick. All brands no matter where they are made or where they are from can have issues!