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2004 Parking Brake Question

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  Wildkats1966 
#1 ·
I got this parking brake that will not hold. I suspect I have a stretched cable since I have never heard of parking brakes wearing out in my 50 years of driving.

The question is which cable is probable the culprit. The pedal to tensioner or the cable from the tensioner to the brakes. I would venture a WAG the former would be the culprit. I suppose I could measure them and compare to the specs.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
You might want to try and look at the parking brakes themselves. They are shoes inside of the rear discs. You need to back them off with a brake spoon prior to trying to remove disc. the mechanism for these gets rusted, and gunked up. they do not work properly then. also the short cable(drivers side) tends to freeze up, leaving the other to do all the work. On reinstall adjust shoes just like old drum style brakes with tire mounted. These things catch ALL the road gunk. Good luck!
 
#3 ·
Thanks,

Over the weekend I removed the rotors and basically all the rusted E-Brake parts kinda fell on the floor. The shoe friction material had removed themselves from the shoes to where they just kinda floated on the inside of the rotor.

Replaced all the E-Brake guts, did a preliminary adjustment and closed them up. I did readjust the tensioner but cannot get the 1/4 in mark to move as I adjusted the nut. The E-Brake works but not to my satisfaction. It does lock up the wheels at the 1/2 way pedal point but I still have to mash the pedal to the floor to hold the vehicle on a hill. When it gets a little bit warmer outside I will do some more checks.

Thanks for the info.

Mike
 
#4 ·
Thanks,

Over the weekend I removed the rotors and basically all the rusted E-Brake parts kinda fell on the floor. The shoe friction material had removed themselves from the shoes to where they just kinda floated on the inside of the rotor.

Replaced all the E-Brake guts, did a preliminary adjustment and closed them up. I did readjust the tensioner but cannot get the 1/4 in mark to move as I adjusted the nut. The E-Brake works but not to my satisfaction. It does lock up the wheels at the 1/2 way pedal point but I still have to mash the pedal to the floor to hold the vehicle on a hill. When it gets a little bit warmer outside I will do some more checks.

Thanks for the info.

Mike[/QUOTE
Make sure the shoes are adjusted to the drum. (you should hear them slightly touching the drum when turning the wheel) If you can't get the cables to adjust to the point that your brakes are good and snug at about 1/4 pedal travel, then you might need new cables. Not the best setup for a parking brake.
 
#5 ·
I think I have them about as good as they will get without buying new cables. They start to grab about 1/4 pedal travel but I have to push the pedal further to hold the vehicle on a hill.

If I do want to replace the cables what ones should it be. Do I R/R the tensioner also.
 
#6 ·
Most times the two cables going back to the wheels are the problem. They get corroded badly, and won't move. Even if you replace the cables, run some sort of lubricant in them prior to install, this helps maintain them. If your cables move, but are stiff, remove them and run a lube in them while moving them back, and forth. New cables are not super expensive though. Hope this has been helpful. Good luck!
 
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