Rear drum brake noise?

This is for a friend's 2000 Cherokee Sport. 136k miles, 4.0/AW4/NP231/C8.25.

He bought the Jeep with 90k miles, and it has made this noise ever since. The noise seems to be isolated to the passenger side rear. I pulled the rear driveshaft and when driving (with 4x4 engaged) the noise still remained. It is a rotational grinding sound that is speed dependent. It seems to get louder when slowing down and applying the brakes, but is always there to some extent.

My first thought was wheel bearing, but I thought those made more of a whine when they go bad.

A local shop replaced the shoes and turned the drums, they over tightened the passenger side rear, and now it has a rotational squeaking noise when slowing down at low speeds and stopping. The passenger side drum also gets warmer than the driver side.

It almost sounds like a bad spot on the drum. I changed the differential fluid in it about 20k miles ago, and the gears looked perfect. Any suggestions? I'm going to pull the drum off today after he gets out of work and see if I find anything.

I searched google for "out of round drum" and most said there was a pulsation in the pedal when this happens. His Jeep doesn't pulsate in the pedal.

was the noise there before the shop serviced it, or after, or both?
when you pull it apart it should be obvious if there is mechanical rubbing. look for built up rust the is rubbing on the backing plate, fresh wear spots should be easy to spot. it could be a wheel bearing, but look for simple stuff first, like contact between moving and stationary parts. bent backing plate?
what do you mean they shop "over tightened it"? sounds like they bent something and it needs to go back to them, unless it's been too long since they did it.

My bet is on a broken brake shoe return spring. I had this happen on my '98 XJ a couple
of months ago. It made all sorts of jangling and grinding noises when going over bumps;
and it would occasionally go quiet. The hanging bit of spring tore up the parking brake
cable guide.

It's easy enough to pull off the drum and inspect the works.

I recently had some terrible noise on a rear drum when lightly braking. Terrible scratching sound. Turns out that I needed just a dab of grease on the ears where the brake shoe slides on the backing plate. Movement between the shoe and plate such as a slightly out of round drum would cause a huge noise because it was coupled into the axle and spring to go to my ears.

Missing or weak springs (return or adjusting) could give a reason to make the shoes move a bit more.

The noise has been there the whole time he has owned the Jeep, so before and after it had the brakes worked on.

When I say over tightened, I'm not quite sure what he meant when he told me that. I did notice that this particular drum was hot to the touch while the other was not after a short drive.

Tonight I jacked up the rear of the Jeep and spun the wheel. There is definitely resistance in one spot when spinning the wheel, and the same grinding noise can be heard when the wheel is spun quickly by hand. This is not the case when spinning the wheel on the opposite side. I couldn't get the drum off, it wouldn't budge. A bunch of crap did fall onto the floor though while I was trying to tap it off. I had a small pile of rust and dirt on the floor afterward.

He is going back to that shop to see what the deal is, I'll update this thread when he has an answer. He bought new drums and shoes for it a few weeks ago and will have the shop install them. I'm thinking the new hardware and drums (since the old drums were turned last time) should eliminate the problem if it is brake related.

I, too, have the sound you describe.... It's a bent axle flange.... Wheel is wobbling and can totally tell the flange is f@$ked up... Since the drum is attached to the flange, it rubs in a certain spot of the shoe causing the sound

When the wheel bearings start go the seal usually isn't far behind. If fact the first sign of a bad wheel bearing is usually a seeping seal. Most times a failing wheel bearing will make a roaring sound, that may change pitch in a turn. It is usually much the same in reverse or a forward gear. A carrier bearing failing is often louder in reverse.

Bearing noise will fool you, sound travels through the drivetrain and even the experts make the wrong call on occasion.