nermalgod

I was bored tonight and with both my roommates out, I had the garage to myself. Today was a beautifully warm and dry day but we are expecting up to 10 inches of wet snow tomorrow so I figured I would take the opportunity to crawl under my truck and do a little maintenance.

My Parking Brake Light came on about three weeks ago and wouldn't turn off unless I held the handle against the dash. I figured the cable had stretched and the next nice day I would crawl under my rig and fix it. I adjusted the cable but noticed that only one of my wheels stopped turning when the parking brake was applied.The other would spin freely with only the hint of a brake shoe rubbing. I pulled the tire off to find the Bellcrank frozen in the applied position. That explains why my Parking Brake Light wouldn't turn off.

So I've been driving for the last three weeks with my Passenger's side parking brake applied. I'm mechanically inclined, but I don't always know what I'm doing. What kind of damage did I do and how much will it cost me to fix? This is beyond my ability so I'm heading over to a tire place tomorrow and hoping, because of the snow storm, I'll be able to get in without an appointment.

CyMoN

are you talking about the lever on the backside of the axle that the cable attaches to if so some PB blaster and a hammer can work it loose again.

my buddys trucks E brake never worked due to rust I sprayed down the lever on the back side or inside of the axle then worked the lever in and out until it broke the rust free then I greased the snot out of it and put the little rubber boot back on.

nermalgod

I just spent the last hour banging on that lever. No movement. It doesn't appear to be very rusted either. I worry that I ground a break shoe to nothing because I didn't catch this earlier.

CyMoN

I bent the lever arm on one side breaking the rust loose I say spray it down with PB blaster let it set over night and try to knock it back in and out.

other thing to do is remove the rear drum and clean it all out those shoes can be a bear,
to remove the drum you will have to back the shoes off with a adjuster and it is a pain.

one quick trick is get to 3" or 4" blots and thread them through the holes on the drum and they will push the drum off of the axle just make sure to use hard bolts that will not strip out easy I have had tha happen before and it sucks.

nermalgod

Having my truck on jack stands, in the middle of a blizzard, with the nearest hardware store two miles away, I gave up on getting the drum off. Does anyone actually know what size bolt threads into the stock drum?

So to answer my question, it costs $29.99 plus tax for the "pro's" to fix it. Spent two hours waiting for them. First hour was waiting for them to pull my truck into the bay. Next half hour was them on lunch. Last 25 minutes was them giving me a "complimentary" vehicle checkup which resulted in $2000 in recommended repairs. 5 minutes of actual work done.

All they did was free up my stuck bellcrank. I was told to not use my parking brake as it will likely stick again. I don't know if I would call that fixing my parking brake, but I should see my gas mileage increase. I'll wait for the next "Spring" day to tear into it again and see if I can make it more reliable.

RETRO

$2000 in repairs needed???WOW