Ok, so I'm inspired by the tjbeggs cooling system thread.


Thought I'd share some pics of what we found a few weeks back.
And I will admit this is my own '96 truck.
I replaced the rear shoes on my '97 last summer because they had never been replaced in the 4 years I had the truck. I put 60k miles on the truck in that time and figured they just needed to be done. There was still maybe 1/2 of the lining left on the shoes! But I had them apart so I replaced them anyway.
I'm no newby to brake maintenance, I usually have a good feel for when the brakes need to be inspected.

A bit after that as I was driving my '96 and I had a panic stop and heard a rather loud BANG! and felt the pedal pulse a little. There was never any noise or feel or anything regarding brakes on that truck up until that time.
I put off driving it as much as possible, then winter came along and I park the truck anway. I was sure it was the front brakes the way it sounded and felt, but the fronts were perfect. But when we pulled the rear wheels off this is what we found:





The drum was cut completely off, and there wasn't much left of the metal part of the shoes at all.

I know these brakes have maybe 30k - 40k miles on them and the passenger side (this is driver's) was perfectly fine. I never use the parking brake, it was not hung up at all.

Not sure why this side wore down so fast, but keep an eye on your brakes even if you think you're OK!!!

 

Is it me or does the drum look thin? That's one heck of a break Jim. What brand drum was that? Such a clean break makes it look like a bad factory joint when they made it.

 

That is worse than mine were! I hadn't checked my rears for a long time, thought all was ok. Then heard something back there stopping one day with the trailer. Took it apart, and yep, junk rears for sure! New drums, pads, etc.

 

So did a foreign object get in there, or did some of the brake hardware come loose and lodge between the shoe and drum, and it just acted as a cutting tool? And +1; that looks waaay too thin for a drum for our trucks. Do you remember how it compared weight-wise to the one you pulled?

 

That is impressive! Jim can you tell what cut though the drum? Was it just metal to metal that long?

 

Here's my addition to this one. This was on my 94 that I sold to my brother. It started to leak break fluid. I figured he blew a line. Couldn't quit see where it came from so I pulled the wheel. This is what I found.







These where autozone gold brakes which I got 10000 to 12000 out of but I ride the brakes hard and lifetime warranty. But how he didn't notice grinding metal on metal I have no idea? Remember these trucks have no indicators that I have seen. And this got new calipers rotors and pads. And he got a good a$$ chewing from me.

 

I used autozone gold brakes for years in my 96 f150 and that's about all i ever got from them 10,000 miles or so. but nothing beats going in and getting new ones everytime for free, i think i went through 8-9 sets. since i did my own tire rotation i never minded takin the extra half hour to change the brakes every now and then

 

Yeah, the drums are super thin.
Just no lining on the shoes and the metal wore the drum away, and finally cut it off into pieces. You can't see the bottom edges of the shoes, but there is basically no metal left on them, right down to the rib that the springs and such clip to.

Those are some cool looking rotors!
Kind of glad I'm not the only one....