Just wondering here, how many of us have replaced the rear drum brakes on your Dakota? My truck has 151,900 miles on it now and still has its original rear shoes, drums, wheel cylinders and hardware. If you have replaced yours, what mileage was it, or maybe a better question is how long did your OEM rear brakes last? I am considering changing mine out and also installing new wheel cylinders and a new springs/hardware kit too. My front brakes and rotors are fine, I already did those not too long ago. Last time I checked it the rears still had a useable amount of friction material left on the shoes and the wheel cylinders were OK, no leaks or anything but I am thinking of replacing everything as preventative maintenance.

Thanks

Jimmy

 

i am about to do mine and it has 140xxx on it and from what i know the previous owner just did oil changes so its factory. they look fine and they feel fine i just wanna get some fresh good on the rear for this winter.

 

I'm at 125k and mine look very good. I've only changed the front pads once too, at about 95k.

No issues here.

 

I would say I had some very bad luck with my 9'' rear brakes had a shop do them at the 75K mile spot just didn’t feel like doing them that time.

This were the bad part comes in I don’t think the shop did anything wrong other than not inspecting them before installing the new shoes. This is why I pulled them off 3 years later and they looked brand new no wear on them nothing why both my wheel cylinders had disintegrated and had locked up and I had no rear brakes for I would say 4 years.

Boy was I surprised.

When I inspected the cylinders on each one a piston was locked up and rusty the other side of each cylinders the seals had disintegrated and turned into a gooey slime they moved a very small amount but were basically not working. I have no clue why this happened.

 

I did mine at 85k just brake shoes. My truck was towed with a lot. They still had some left but I figured while I was in there I would just replace it.

 

I did mine a couple of weeks ago. Funny thing (or sad thing), I just took it in for a safety inspection and they told me that it needed swaybar links in the rear - that's what they told me last year (among other things). Long story but I ok'ed them to do the sway bar links. When I got it home, I wanted to service the rear drum brakes and they were seized on. That surprised me because in order to inspect the rear brakes and parking brake, I would assume you need to remove the drums.
I grabbed a pry bar and without and force at all pieces of the drum broke off because they were rusted so bad. There was no way that they looked at my rear brakes.
So I ordered new spring kits, shoes and drums. I cleaned everything up and put it all bactogether. Passenger went great, the drum slid right on. The driver's side was a different story - the shoes seamed as though they would not collapse enough for the drum to fit on. I thought it may have been the wheel cylnder because it looked rough. I went out and got new cylnders for both sides. Unfortunately, it didn't help (yes the star adjuster was cranked as low as possible). So I stripped them both down again and finally found the problem. I videoed the passenger side brakes as I engaged the parking brake - it had good movement. I videoed the driver's side - no movement what so ever. My parking brake cable on the driver's side was ceased. once I replaced it, the drum slid right on and parking brake worked properly.
So I tell you all this to make my point. If you are going to replace your rear brakes, buy all new parts, not just shoes and drums. get the cylnders, the spring kit, and if you want, you coould even go so far as to but the other small parts. The cost of these parts is so little, just replace them and then you don't have to keep stripping the down to find out why they are not working properly - you have all new parts. As for the parking brake cable, you can decide if you want to swap those out, but at the minimum have someone either apply the brake while you are looking at them or video it to make sure you have movement.
I have a ton of pics and video for this job and can post if anyone wants.
BTW - '02 Dakota with 208,000km (about 120,000 miles?) also - my truck has a lot of rust underneath due to living in NB. Guys down south probably wouldn't have the issues I had.

 

Thanks for all of the info. I am off work Thursday and am planning to do the brakes then. I worked up a good deal with using a coupon at Auto Zone and online discount codes at Advance so two brand new drums, shoes, new wheel cylinders, new brake springs hardware kit and new brake adjuster kits will all cost me only $107.00. My truck has a slight shimmy/pulsation when coming to a stop. If the new rear brakes don't cure it I will pick up a new set of front rotors too. My front brake rotors are about 2 1/2 years old. They could be warped, but at 12 years old and almost 152,000 miles the rear brakes need to be done regardless.

Thanks for the help.

Jimmy

 

Case and point. for the 30 seconds it takes to watch your brakes for movement before you slide the drum and wheel on - it will save you a lot of trouble. - as well a good example as to why you would replace everything. Geez - maybe we had the same guy? I put about $250.00 in for basically all new parts - this easily would have been a $600.00 job at a shop around here. Also - my first time doing drums. They look a little intimidating because of all the small parts and springs but it's not bad. Take a pick of the assembly with the drum off before you start removal - you may need it for a reference. Also, only do one side at a time.

 

Yes please if you can post pics and video I know I would appreciate the help. Thanks for the info.

Jimmy

 

Awesome deal!!! I am not sure if you have done them before - I am not a know it all or a mechanic but a couple of things I did for the job - granted I have a lot of rusted parts - once I had the parts removed I cleaned the backing plate and parts with brake cleaner and to a wire brush and scraped off as much crap as I could. Also make sure you have brake lubricant (or high temperature grease) so you can lube the contact points on the backing plate, as well as some anti sieze for the star adjuster. Again, just my opinion, I think if you are going in, you may as well clean everything up.
Good luck!

I will send you a link for photobucket.