This explains why my current mechanic was able to adjust my handbrake over 1 year ago and it's still working fine. Previous mechanic was never able to achieve that same outcome. Cheers
Good work, did mine today, might have to revisit after watching this. Installed the extended Terrain Tamer dogbones and the Superior Engineering handbrake quadrant upgrade as well. But I can see your point in the factory methods...
I grew up with an old Hilux with drum brakes on all 4 wheels, and amazingly I just followed the Toyota workshop manual and they worked fine. I did exactly as the LandCruiser workshop manual said for my 76 and the hand brake worked as it should. If you drive through mud and don't maintain the vehicle properly, yes they don't work. Great video, showing that if you maintain your car as per design you don't need to spend big $$$ on aftermarket hand brakes that eat into you budget for other stuff
To be fair, those transfer case handbrakes are a lot better thanks to the diff gear reduction, but yeah, there's no problem whatsoever with a set to spec regular one. My theory is mechanic ego exists, and they think checking procedures is weakness
Very true, 40 series with 4 speeds had transmission hand brake and they could hold on a near vertical track, and suffered less ingress of whatever you happened to drive through…
Only extra thing I did was adjust the arms the handbrake cable attaches to. Then adjusted cable at HB lever and works a treat. Otherwise your pulling that freeplay at the levers before HB works.
Rattle gun, jack screwdriver and torque wrench plus a casual 30mins and adjustment done in the driveway. Much better. Tell you the truth I always thought it was self adjusting. Thanks for the impetus to get me to do it rather than complain about it😂
I had my cable completely seize in the sheath and that caused the little lead thing to unhook itself from the handle. Just one zip tie I was able to keep it captive no matter how much slack builds up. Also you’ll want to lube it if you can, they make cable lubers. So far mine works now, I did buy those eBay extended brake dogs but I think I won’t be needing them. Not yet at least
Gotta disagree with lubing an unseized cable. They're Teflon lined from factory which is a dry lube. Any wet lube introduced will attract dirt, exacerbating the problem. As a short term fix of a stuck cable though, sure.
Thank you for stating what I have always thought, that the 79 series handbrake works fine when Toyota delivers the new car otherwise there would be many warranty claims and recalls . I thinks it is marketing hype to sell specialty parts and if people follow your advice which is similar to how drum brakes were adjusted in the 1950s they wouldn't have a problem.
They're not perfect by any stretch but yeah they do work when set right. If I was Toyota san sat in my office in the 70s designing the 2023 handbrake, I'd give it more of a lever advantage. But it'll never beat a transfer case handbrake
The handbrake even front brand new aren't very efficient. I use to work in underground mining. And all the LC had sibs rear brake conversion. Due too hand brakes not holding up when heavily loaded and type of environment. I Have also previously on other open cut mining sites added some weld 1mm to the dog bone plate and adjust the stoppers on the backing plate to help improve the efficiency. We even trialed out a disc set up on the drive shaft. But this vids will help you get a much better hand brake.
I guess there's no perfect solution. Wheel mounted HBs give you less braking force, but shaft brakes give you a bunch of backlash. The adjustment is purely to get the lever efficiency up, so I guess the better you do it, the better the brake will be. There are alternative/direct fit calipers with cable brake from certain manufacturers. For example, there's a subaru one that can bolt onto a patrol, but I'm not sure of one that would apply to the LC. Maybe more digging required.
What’s the purpose of driving with the hand brake on prior to the final adjustment? (Allows the surface of the shoes to be wear evenly in place and thermal expansion to set it so the final adjustment is correct?)
On the newer landcruisers, it's the same system except they cunningly gave you sod all access, This style hub ^^ is a doddle. The newer Cruiser ones are a pain.
just spent 2 days screwing around with my 02 prado`s HB. the one thing I didn't do was disconnect the handbrake cable. was not happy with the results I achieved with new shoes, they work but the cable is adjusted to its maximum at the hand lever. goddamn it , gonna have to pull wheel off again and screw around with that adjustment thing behind the wheel hub.
Sounds frustrating. That's what you get for following internet guides! Not sure about the Prado, but it's probably quite easy to find the Toyota workshops manual for this section. Once you do, follow it to the tee and you'll be fine.
@@ridiculousthings4x4 prado is basically the same, though the hub is larger. i did not see one video of putting the shoe retaining spring and cup on first though, and I watched about 50 videos of blokes doing them, did not appear to be any easy way to get them placed . my prado is particularly hard due to the size of the "hub", to place the cup on the spring and push in onto the other "thing" I had to go through a hole in the "hub" with needle nose pliers while pressing a finger on the other end of the "thing" on the rear of the hub. unbelievably frustrating but with a lot of patience and many rests in between bouts of swearing I got them on. but i`ll have another go at them, undo the cable at rear then adjust the brakes at the little cogged wheel , then reconnect the cable and adjust to suit my needs.... little cogged wheel is an art in itself. i do have the workshop manual but who the fck looks at that when we got interweb genious` to show us how its not done properly LMFAO
@@ridiculousthings4x4 do you know if the adjustment wheel with the "spurs" are supposed to be opposites? for example: right side turn wheel UP to tighten, left side DOWN to tighten.
I strongly suggest taking it somewhere like Toyota for this. Messing around with brakes at the say so of internet videos when you might not be 100% sure what you're doing is a terrible idea.
@@ridiculousthings4x4 i`m competent enough and have good enough idea of how things work, car and motorcycles. with this particular vehicle it doesn't appear to make any difference one way or the other, workshop manual and owners manual doesn't say one way or the other, nothing on the interweb either, so its owners choice I guess. but I pulled it apart and put back together again anyway for good measure, double checked everything is correct. just the cable at rear next, I wont be happy till I got a hardcore handbrake that will lockup the back wheels with a quick pull of the lever. at present it comes to a slooow halt when pulled, not good enough .LOL. thanks for your help
I can only fault you on two things First, you didn’t wear some weird black latex glove like every other TH-cam mechanic Second, you need to draw blood when doing drum brakes 😂😂😂🤠. Seriously though, great video and i will try that method next time
Thanks Shad. I'm too scared to do the LandCruiser blood pact just yet, and all my latex gloves have been used up in nefarious activities. Next time though 😅
Great Video! do you think you should use the extended dog bones as well as adjust the hand brake in this correct method if fitting new HB Shoes??? im the only comment on here without a reply but probably the only one who actually needs the information......... Nice 👍
Great Video! do you think you should use the extended dog bones as well as adjust the hand brake in this correct method if fitting new HB Shoes??? Im about to do a full overhaul of my troopys brake rotors and pads all new all round. Im going to do new handbrake shoes at same time. Will be doing this method but was wondering wether i should install the upgraded extended dog bones at the same time ? what do you think ? I would like your opinion :) do you think there is benefit to the upgraded aftermarket dogbones if the handbrake is adjusted the correct way ??? also was thinking about buying a new handbrake cable from toyota to fit at same time (shes 23 years old now and probs stretched) what do you reckon ?
My dads 80series had factory rear drums, the hand brake never needed adjusting, because they have a self adjuster. It's a shame toyota did engineer in the 5c of spring and metal tab so all disc brake landcruiser handbrakes self adjusted the star wheel. Pretty sure most drum braked vehicles do the same
Once adjusted correctly on these they tend to stay in spec, but yeah I'm not sure why a late 80s 80 series LandCruiser has better tech than a 2012+ one. GG Toyota.
As a 73 year old who grew up with drum brakes all around, and then disc/drum, then disc/disc with shoe handbrake and then disc/disc with disc handbrake, I find it incomprehensible how the hell anyone can wear out a set of handbrake shoes. FFS the handbrake is applied with the vehicle stationary, and therefore the frictions never slip on the drums. Even on my Patrol with drum handbrake on the tailshaft, which I do use very often offroad downhill in steep terrain (Vic High Country tracks :) ) the shoes are hardly fully bedded. I have only adjusted the handbrake once in 12 years, and yes, you tighten the little adjuster wheel while rotating the tailshaft/axle until it locks, then back off. Those little retaining pins on the Toyota brake seem ridiculously complex - mostly they are a simple pin through a hole, which is dead easy to fit with a pair of pliers - push in a bit and twist 90 degrees.
Many factors wear out the shoes. Anything from grit and contamination getting in, to the fact that even if adjusted correctly, the shoes can make contact under certain conditions or vibrations due to them having a lot of float to them. This happens less on the patrol due to it being on the sprung side of the drive line, whereas the only suspension the drums have on a cruiser is the tyres themselves. Although fools leaving their handbrake on is obviously a contributing factor ;) it's also good maintenance to do it while you're there. You can probably see that there was plenty of thickness left on the old ones, but then you can consider glazing affecting friction coefficients etc. many many reasons. Hope this helps
@@ridiculousthings4x4 I suspect the main reason might be the fools leaving the handbrake on...... The 4.8 Patrol has drum in disc handbrake (as opposed to the tailshaft one on most models) but you never hear of them not working or wearing out. I put it down to a poor Toyota design; same engineer that specified diff sizes?
So what was the reason you have to drive with the handbrake on for a bit? Because of all of it or do you even have to do it if you just adjust the handbrake? And why exactly are you supposed to drive with the handbrake on for a bit? 🙏🏼
You've got the white lettering on your tyres on the outside... That makes me grind my teeth. Also - I sent you an email on your info at mabblahblahblah but you never replied :(
Hand brake adjustment of these vehicles is relatively easy If not slightly tedious. Those wheel spacers are a tool of the devil though. Check the damage your doing to your stub axles via hot outer bearings. Wrong wrong wrong and illegal in Australia to run wheel spacers
Thanks for your opinion. Mathematically, you put more strain on the bearings by going up a tyre size and going around a corner than you do with wheel spacers. The anecdotal "wheel spacers are the devil" nonsense needs to stop.
@@ridiculousthings4x4 I can send you photos of the damage they cause if you like. It doesn’t stop because you want it to. They are dangerous, illegal and a bad idea. All G though it’s your vehicle
What’s the purpose of driving with the hand brake on prior to the final adjustment? (Allows the surface of the shoes to be wear evenly in place and thermal expansion to set it so the final adjustment is correct?)
This explains why my current mechanic was able to adjust my handbrake over 1 year ago and it's still working fine. Previous mechanic was never able to achieve that same outcome. Cheers
And now, 1 year later, you can do it yourself thanks to a badly edited video!
Good work, did mine today, might have to revisit after watching this. Installed the extended Terrain Tamer dogbones and the Superior Engineering handbrake quadrant upgrade as well. But I can see your point in the factory methods...
Finally an actual guide
I grew up with an old Hilux with drum brakes on all 4 wheels, and amazingly I just followed the Toyota workshop manual and they worked fine. I did exactly as the LandCruiser workshop manual said for my 76 and the hand brake worked as it should.
If you drive through mud and don't maintain the vehicle properly, yes they don't work.
Great video, showing that if you maintain your car as per design you don't need to spend big $$$ on aftermarket hand brakes that eat into you budget for other stuff
To be fair, those transfer case handbrakes are a lot better thanks to the diff gear reduction, but yeah, there's no problem whatsoever with a set to spec regular one. My theory is mechanic ego exists, and they think checking procedures is weakness
Very true, 40 series with 4 speeds had transmission hand brake and they could hold on a near vertical track, and suffered less ingress of whatever you happened to drive through…
My biggest problem is generally left over “gubbins”! Gold👍
Only extra thing I did was adjust the arms the handbrake cable attaches to. Then adjusted cable at HB lever and works a treat. Otherwise your pulling that freeplay at the levers before HB works.
While your method may "work", if there's no slack between the cable and arms, you're just taking up necessary slack between the lever and the pads.
I don't have a land cruiser but I want one. Thank you for these videos
Method, method, method... It's all in the method! Great vid... It should help some folks 👍🏻
Thanks
Best one I've seen so far good info mate 👍
Rattle gun, jack screwdriver and torque wrench plus a casual 30mins and adjustment done in the driveway. Much better. Tell you the truth I always thought it was self adjusting. Thanks for the impetus to get me to do it rather than complain about it😂
Self adjusting would be the dream. Even jeep has it 🤢
Lol, in that deadpan succinct way you've nailed it.
It's almost like I planned this
Great video. I never knew this was the procedure till now.
Amazing nobody seems to
Good stuff a always Matt. Cheers Steve
I had my cable completely seize in the sheath and that caused the little lead thing to unhook itself from the handle. Just one zip tie I was able to keep it captive no matter how much slack builds up.
Also you’ll want to lube it if you can, they make cable lubers.
So far mine works now, I did buy those eBay extended brake dogs but I think I won’t be needing them. Not yet at least
Gotta disagree with lubing an unseized cable. They're Teflon lined from factory which is a dry lube. Any wet lube introduced will attract dirt, exacerbating the problem. As a short term fix of a stuck cable though, sure.
Thank you for stating what I have always thought, that the 79 series handbrake works fine when Toyota delivers the new car otherwise there would be many warranty claims and recalls . I thinks it is marketing hype to sell specialty parts and if people follow your advice which is similar to how drum brakes were adjusted in the 1950s they wouldn't have a problem.
They're not perfect by any stretch but yeah they do work when set right. If I was Toyota san sat in my office in the 70s designing the 2023 handbrake, I'd give it more of a lever advantage. But it'll never beat a transfer case handbrake
The handbrake even front brand new aren't very efficient. I use to work in underground mining. And all the LC had sibs rear brake conversion. Due too hand brakes not holding up when heavily loaded and type of environment. I Have also previously on other open cut mining sites added some weld 1mm to the dog bone plate and adjust the stoppers on the backing plate to help improve the efficiency. We even trialed out a disc set up on the drive shaft. But this vids will help you get a much better hand brake.
I guess there's no perfect solution. Wheel mounted HBs give you less braking force, but shaft brakes give you a bunch of backlash. The adjustment is purely to get the lever efficiency up, so I guess the better you do it, the better the brake will be. There are alternative/direct fit calipers with cable brake from certain manufacturers. For example, there's a subaru one that can bolt onto a patrol, but I'm not sure of one that would apply to the LC. Maybe more digging required.
What’s the purpose of driving with the hand brake on prior to the final adjustment? (Allows the surface of the shoes to be wear evenly in place and thermal expansion to set it so the final adjustment is correct?)
Good info, & sense of comedy.
On the newer landcruisers, it's the same system except they cunningly gave you sod all access, This style hub ^^ is a doddle. The newer Cruiser ones are a pain.
just spent 2 days screwing around with my 02 prado`s HB. the one thing I didn't do was disconnect the handbrake cable. was not happy with the results I achieved with new shoes, they work but the cable is adjusted to its maximum at the hand lever. goddamn it , gonna have to pull wheel off again and screw around with that adjustment thing behind the wheel hub.
Sounds frustrating. That's what you get for following internet guides! Not sure about the Prado, but it's probably quite easy to find the Toyota workshops manual for this section. Once you do, follow it to the tee and you'll be fine.
@@ridiculousthings4x4
prado is basically the same, though the hub is larger. i did not see one video of putting the shoe retaining spring and cup on first though, and I watched about 50 videos of blokes doing them, did not appear to be any easy way to get them placed . my prado is particularly hard due to the size of the "hub", to place the cup on the spring and push in onto the other "thing" I had to go through a hole in the "hub" with needle nose pliers while pressing a finger on the other end of the "thing" on the rear of the hub. unbelievably frustrating but with a lot of patience and many rests in between bouts of swearing I got them on. but i`ll have another go at them, undo the cable at rear then adjust the brakes at the little cogged wheel , then reconnect the cable and adjust to suit my needs.... little cogged wheel is an art in itself. i do have the workshop manual but who the fck looks at that when we got interweb genious` to show us how its not done properly LMFAO
@@ridiculousthings4x4
do you know if the adjustment wheel with the "spurs" are supposed to be opposites? for example: right side turn wheel UP to tighten, left side DOWN to tighten.
I strongly suggest taking it somewhere like Toyota for this. Messing around with brakes at the say so of internet videos when you might not be 100% sure what you're doing is a terrible idea.
@@ridiculousthings4x4
i`m competent enough and have good enough idea of how things work, car and motorcycles. with this particular vehicle it doesn't appear to make any difference one way or the other, workshop manual and owners manual doesn't say one way or the other, nothing on the interweb either, so its owners choice I guess. but I pulled it apart and put back together again anyway for good measure, double checked everything is correct. just the cable at rear next, I wont be happy till I got a hardcore handbrake that will lockup the back wheels with a quick pull of the lever. at present it comes to a slooow halt when pulled, not good enough .LOL. thanks for your help
I can only fault you on two things
First, you didn’t wear some weird black latex glove like every other TH-cam mechanic
Second, you need to draw blood when doing drum brakes 😂😂😂🤠.
Seriously though, great video and i will try that method next time
Thanks Shad. I'm too scared to do the LandCruiser blood pact just yet, and all my latex gloves have been used up in nefarious activities. Next time though 😅
❤❤ thanks for the best advice
Great Video! do you think you should use the extended dog bones as well as adjust the hand brake in this correct method if fitting new HB Shoes??? im the only comment on here without a reply but probably the only one who actually needs the information......... Nice 👍
I'm going through this atm lol. All new bits shoes discs dogbones etc and shoes randomly grabbing
Great video. What a laugh but also informative. What shoes did you use mate? Unless I missed that in the video. Thanks.
Just a generic cheapy pads kit. While it'll probably wear out much faster than OEM, it's a static brake after all. Should still last the distance.
They're waiting for you Gordon...in the test chamber!
I'm out of quotes, but right now the sounds of a scientist screaming is playing in your head.
Great Video! do you think you should use the extended dog bones as well as adjust the hand brake in this correct method if fitting new HB Shoes???
Im about to do a full overhaul of my troopys brake rotors and pads all new all round. Im going to do new handbrake shoes at same time.
Will be doing this method but was wondering wether i should install the upgraded extended dog bones at the same time ? what do you think ?
I would like your opinion :) do you think there is benefit to the upgraded aftermarket dogbones if the handbrake is adjusted the correct way ???
also was thinking about buying a new handbrake cable from toyota to fit at same time (shes 23 years old now and probs stretched) what do you reckon ?
My dads 80series had factory rear drums, the hand brake never needed adjusting, because they have a self adjuster. It's a shame toyota did engineer in the 5c of spring and metal tab so all disc brake landcruiser handbrakes self adjusted the star wheel. Pretty sure most drum braked vehicles do the same
Once adjusted correctly on these they tend to stay in spec, but yeah I'm not sure why a late 80s 80 series LandCruiser has better tech than a 2012+ one. GG Toyota.
As a 73 year old who grew up with drum brakes all around, and then disc/drum, then disc/disc with shoe handbrake and then disc/disc with disc handbrake, I find it incomprehensible how the hell anyone can wear out a set of handbrake shoes. FFS the handbrake is applied with the vehicle stationary, and therefore the frictions never slip on the drums. Even on my Patrol with drum handbrake on the tailshaft, which I do use very often offroad downhill in steep terrain (Vic High Country tracks :) ) the shoes are hardly fully bedded. I have only adjusted the handbrake once in 12 years, and yes, you tighten the little adjuster wheel while rotating the tailshaft/axle until it locks, then back off. Those little retaining pins on the Toyota brake seem ridiculously complex - mostly they are a simple pin through a hole, which is dead easy to fit with a pair of pliers - push in a bit and twist 90 degrees.
Many factors wear out the shoes. Anything from grit and contamination getting in, to the fact that even if adjusted correctly, the shoes can make contact under certain conditions or vibrations due to them having a lot of float to them. This happens less on the patrol due to it being on the sprung side of the drive line, whereas the only suspension the drums have on a cruiser is the tyres themselves. Although fools leaving their handbrake on is obviously a contributing factor ;) it's also good maintenance to do it while you're there. You can probably see that there was plenty of thickness left on the old ones, but then you can consider glazing affecting friction coefficients etc. many many reasons. Hope this helps
@@ridiculousthings4x4 I suspect the main reason might be the fools leaving the handbrake on...... The 4.8 Patrol has drum in disc handbrake (as opposed to the tailshaft one on most models) but you never hear of them not working or wearing out. I put it down to a poor Toyota design; same engineer that specified diff sizes?
Got sick of the lack of handbrake so I paid $2k for a transmission handbrake. After watching this I sorta regret it
If it makes you feel any better, Range Rovers have tranny brakes 🤢
did you need to modify the length of your drive shaft to fit one of those? marks states up to 25mm shorter with a 50mm lift
So what was the reason you have to drive with the handbrake on for a bit? Because of all of it or do you even have to do it if you just adjust the handbrake? And why exactly are you supposed to drive with the handbrake on for a bit? 🙏🏼
It beds in the new shoes so you don't have to readjust later. Not really applicable unless you're fitting new.
My 70series box Prado is Automatic 4disc break so...a weak handbreak doesnt matter
well, that "automatically" makes me unable to come up with a good reply.
I have a 90s 77 series. The one that doesn't really exist. So this might help. There is really no way to tell.
Special Revolver Shakle ?
Yup, the ultimate flex gimmick
Based on the endless crapping on about it from a certain 24 hour TH-cam channel I keep waiting for the handbrake to stop working on my 79. It hasn’t.
Toyota's have handbrakes that work! Well blow me down with a feather.
I dont even have a land cruiser lmao
You will, don't worry
Yet I still watch it 😂
All right if you have done it before
It's also fine if you haven't done it before, as long as you follow the manufacturers instructions which nobody does and then they moan about it.
Always put it in gear.
Never rely solely on a handbrake
Sure, but without a correctly adjusted handbrake you're relying on just being in gear 🧐
@@ridiculousthings4x4 wise words sensei
You've got the white lettering on your tyres on the outside... That makes me grind my teeth.
Also - I sent you an email on your info at mabblahblahblah but you never replied :(
Cancel that - I just saw your email come in...
Put a brick or rock
What about a brick AND a rock?
Lol I hope this is real
It was real
Especially the force scene
@@ridiculousthings4x4 use the forceskin
Hand brake adjustment of these vehicles is relatively easy If not slightly tedious.
Those wheel spacers are a tool of the devil though. Check the damage your doing to your stub axles via hot outer bearings. Wrong wrong wrong and illegal in Australia to run wheel spacers
Thanks for your opinion. Mathematically, you put more strain on the bearings by going up a tyre size and going around a corner than you do with wheel spacers. The anecdotal "wheel spacers are the devil" nonsense needs to stop.
@@ridiculousthings4x4 I can send you photos of the damage they cause if you like. It doesn’t stop because you want it to. They are dangerous, illegal and a bad idea. All G though it’s your vehicle
What’s the purpose of driving with the hand brake on prior to the final adjustment? (Allows the surface of the shoes to be wear evenly in place and thermal expansion to set it so the final adjustment is correct?)
It's pretty much a bedding in procedure. Thermals won't play much of a role here.