My front drum brakes stick all the time on my 98 quadrunner 4x4. When it sits for a little or whatever basically the front tires are locked up. IfI hit it with a hammer or my foot on the tire, the tire will then spin fine again. It is still very hard move the wheel even after it is not locked up however. Anyways, I removed the one tire today and since there is no adjustment on the shoes since they are self adjusting....I am stumped. I adjusted the wheel cylinder in a little and moved the shoes slightly in and put back on the drum....the drum spun pretty smoothly. As soon as I applied the front brake and released, the drum was locked up again. While I was in there I hosed everything off with wd-40 (accept the shoes) just to make sure the return springs were not sticking or rusted tight. As far as I know, everything looked pretty good in there.

 

Sounds like your rubber brake lines are colapsed and only letting fluid thru under pressure. Open the bleeder and see if the brake shoes release.

 

i did open the bleeder and nothing happened. No brake fluid came out. However, when i closed it and then pushed down the brake lever fluid did come out. Of course I didnt release the brake lever to let air in until the bleeder was closed. Was fluid supposed to come out when i just opened it and not pushed down the lever? If so, what else should I look for? thanks for the help!

 

also when i opened the bleeder, the brakes where still locked no matter what way i did it. why the hell arnt they not releasing!!!

 

CALIPER STUCK???????

 

no caliper....drum brakes

 

rust

 

Typical of older Suzuki drum brakes. Just a little moisture will lock them up. Best defense is frequent cleaning of the brakes. I got out of the habit of using the parking brake while storing any of my drum brake ATV's as they always locked up while sitting there waiting for the next ride.

Jaybee

 

Sounds like the cylinders or hand brake cable is sticking , to service the wheel cylinders you need to remove them then take them apart and clean the inside of the cylinder bore with fine grit sandpaper to remove the corroision ; after you put them back together and bleed the system if they continue to stick you will have to replace the hand brake cable if it's sticking !

The inner wire on the hand brake cables on these quads are coated with Teflon and must be replaced when the coating wears off causing them to stick , i had to replace the cable on my old 93' Suzuki LTWD 300 KQ and the one on my 86' Honda TRX350 4x4 when they started doing the same thing ; i hope this helps good luck and welcome to the forums !.....

 

My Ozark's rear drum brakes did this as well. It was from moisture I believe, and they were ready to be replaced. I replaced the shoe and it works just fine now.