97 LX, MT, with disc in front drum in back. Nothing has changed anytime recent, and I don't notice any loss of brake fluid (little tank above the master cylinder is not low).

I always put the parking brake on when parked. During the week, after it sat for a couple hours, I started it up and drove off, heard a strange sound coming from the rear passenger side. I swear the wheel was locked up, but I didn't "really" notice because the road i was on was covered in ice. I did notice it sounded like the tire was dragging and stopped, but when i checked it out, the tire was moving fine, and didn't make anymore strange noises.

The next morning it was more stubborn, i could definitely tell it was locked up, but I did a gentle fwd/reverse and it functioned correctly again. Normally I wouldn't be tooo worried, but about 15 minutes into my drive, after I had gotten off the highway, I went to brake and the pedal sank to the floor. I was able to pump and recharge my braking power, but the rest of the way to work, each "new" stop required pumping of the brakes to get stopping power.

It sat at work for nine hours (parking brake on) and when i went to leave for home, the rear passenger wheel was definitely locked up. I backed out slowly, and then I hear what sounds like two metal bits clank together (one clank, like a hammer striking a piece of metal). Immediately stopped backing up and rolled forward, no sounds.

I started backing up again, and had no problems with the wheel on the second try. I even got up a little bit of speed in reverse and applied the brakes, but everything appeared to be functioning normally. Also, I didn't have any issues with braking in general, braking feel was normal for the entire drive home.

Yesterday I left it parked as usual but did NOT engage the parking brake. It sat all night and when i got to it today, there were no issues at all. I've left the parking brake engaged tonight to verify that there's an issue when it sits with the parking brake on.

Any ideas on all of this? My primary concern is the one thing I haven't been able to reproduce (having to pump the brakes to get them to work). It seems like my problems with the rear passenger wheel and braking power should be linked, but this is my first car with drums so I'm unsure if that could be the case. It just seems weird that I would have two unrelated problems at the same time...

Comments welcome!

 

your parking brake is freezing that is all b/c its cold

 

is that normal? It was below zero up here for a few days (it has not been below zero in the past week) and I never had any problems. If that was the issue that would be ok, but does it explain the one time loss of braking power in the middle of a drive? Granted it was still @ss cold out (about 10*)

 

Its not exactly normal but it is fairly common. about the loss of braking pwr its entirely possible you just hit an air bubble in the hydraulic lines for your brakes. Try bleeding your brakes if you encounter this problem again.

 

If we're going through a freeze/thaw cycle here in the winter I stop using the parking brake altogether because of this. My Tacoma and 4runner are even worse for this, no amount of cleaning and lubrication can stop the icing on the pivot points.

 

I thought I'd update this thread in case anyone else did a search later. I wasn't so much bothered by the parking brake sticking as I was the low brake pedal starting in the middle of my drive (with outside temps being below freezing).

I figured I would at least try to fix the issue. Since I don't go back there much (its got 165k on it and I've *never* popped open the drum) I decided to replace a few things. Total cost of parts was pretty cheap. All "middle of the road" components and price tag under $150. Work done:

Replace drums
Replace shoes
Replace springs,pins,etc
Replace wheel cylinders
Brake fluid flush (as opposed to just a bleed)
Liberal amounts of brake cleaner on parts, most notably on the self adjuster
Hi Temp brake grease on all sliding surfaces

Couldn't say for sure which one of these things fixed the issue, but for now I don't have a parking brake that sticks (never had it happen before so I imagine its fixed) and i don't experience a "sudden low brake pedal" in the middle of a drive. I definitely needed new shoes and the parts in there (especially the self adjuster) needed a good cleaning and some fresh brake grease. It was an incredible pain in the *** doing it at 12* F outside.