It seems there is a problem with them. Actually my mechanic suggested to replace them. But today i heard faint bang at rear two times, after starting car and moving slowly after two red lights. Felt like something was stuck inside drum brakes and got broken( i faced this on my previous SUV). Actually our zj has no drum brakes, all wheels are with disc brakes and it is 97' ZJ laredo.

how hard to replace them, and are those shoes sold in sets?

 

they are pads not shoes, and yes they are sold in sets, there are however shoes for the park brake that go on the inside of the rotor, I would replace those as well when you do the pads

 

There ARE brake shoes on your ZJ even though you have four wheel disc brakes. The shoes are used only for the parking brake and are sold as a set. They should never wear out because they are not used for stopping the vehicle, but if you forget to release the hand brake a couple times, they can get worn out. I guess rust and other weather related things could pose a problem with them siezing up or sticking.

 

I live in pa as a mechanic. Almost every vehical with rear EBRAKE shoes and disc brakes needs to have the ebrake shoes replaced every other rear shoe replacement, replace rotors to. The problem is salt, and people with automatics never use ebrake. The rotor rust inside, the shoes inside drag, and either brake apart, or bind up. I have noticed that manual vehicals have this problem alot less, using the ebrake helps keep it adjusted, and therefore keeps the moving parts, moving.... And lasting alot longer.

 

thanks you friends. its time to buy some parts. it never ends actually

 

today i bought replacements. we found that all brake pads are worned out and just a small piece was used to park car at right wheel only.I never saw such situation. There is no where to go inside disc brake. Also metal housings were totally rusted out. all are repaired now.

When we were there rear brake pads has been replaced. I found that several cracks on pad materials. So it was good idea to replace them all.

 

OP - Glad you got it sorted.

Others - it's common for a 4-wheel-disc setup to have a separate parking brake inside the "hat" on the rear discs - the rotor hat is used as a small (~6") brake drum strictly for a parking brake. This is easier than the idea of running a hydraulic/mechanical piston arrangement in the rear calipers (a la Ford) and needing a special tool to retract the piston to put in new pads, and not being sure when you've run the piston all the way back in without damaging anything, and not being able to overhaul the caliper yourself, &c &c.