If your Toyota or Lexus truck or SUV is operated in an area with high road salt or snowy winters, a common failure is the seizing of the rear parking brake pivot or bellcrank. The parking brake handle pulls a cable taught, the cable on the pivot and the pivot applies the rear drum brake/parking brake shoes against the inside of the drum. If the pivot itself seizes it looks something like this, a new pivot next to the old:
Seized pivot/bellcrank
Depending on the situation and state of corrosion, sometimes the entire assembly need be replaced, other times the entire rear brakes, cables and hardware need to be addressed as well. Here at CARSpec we use a heavy coating of antiseize (similar to this LX470/Land Cruiser common A/C failure caused by corrosion) to help prevent the issue reoccuring:
Antiseized pivot/bellcrank
If you think your parking break is seized we recommend you not try and use it until you have in inspected first – using the parking break with a seized pivot can result in a parking brake that sticks on and won’t release.
As Eden Prairie and Chanhassen’s independent Toyota and Lexus repair specialist we see this fairly often and offer inspections of the parking brake bell crank at no charge. If you think you have an issue with your parking brake give us a call at (952)426-4798 to make an appointment today!
