marsstar102

I have a 93 pickup with the 3vze motor and my parking brake doesn't set tight. I have tried adjusting the tension and i just can't pull it tight enough to stop my truck. When i pull handle as hard as I can it will slow down but no lock my tires like it should. when i go offroading and want to take a pic on a hill it will role away when i get out. I had to change the rear brake cable once because the cable seized up. when it is cold out side my cable will lock up also. i think i need to replace the front cable also, but if i do i don't know how to get it out from the dash board a looked at one at the junk yard that was full apart that i could see what was going on but i couldn't figure it out.

Jay351

Mine used to lock up in the winter, I ended up snapping it on two occaisions. Once I snapped the front and then I snapped the rear. Both had rusted on the inside and eventually just seized it up.

I replaced everything and it still doesnt like to grab that hard. In compairson my girlfriends 4runners e-brake will LOCK those tires up easily, but its a different cable design...

I just don't they designed the e-brake that well. When you want to park your truck, put it in 4low and reverse or 1st..

abecedarian

Depress the foot brake pedal and repeatedly pull and release the parking brake handle.

If things are working right, every time you pull the p-brake handle, it shoud adjust the brakes a little bit. So it might take repeated pull and release of the handle to get it set. If the rear's are way out of adjustment and the p-brake handle doesn't adjust things in, the adjuster(s) in the rear may be not working properly.

marsstar102

does any one know how to get the front parking cable off mine needs to be replaced it has water in it from mudding and it locks up in the winter?

Jay351

dealer or www.rockauto.com

marsstar102

i know that the part is a dealer only part. i just don't know how to disasemble the one i have in my truck now. it goes through the cab to the engine compartment and i don't know how to get it out.

Jay351

Start taking things apart..

Just find out where the cable is held to the body, move the clamps and remove the cable.

marsstar102

i tried that i got all of the front cable apart on a junk yard truck. the only part was where it goes from the handle to the enging compartment i spent like half an hour with it completely apart trying to get that out with out cutting the cable. i check in the hanze manual also and it doesn't give any information on the cable.

Jay351

Look at the 1993 FSM manual posted in the stickys. That haynes manual is a peice of crap. Throw it away or use it for firestarter.

The FSM is the only way to go. I was lucky enough to find volume 1 and 2 on craigslist for $30!

NYChopshop

x2 on haynes is crap. I got the 2 volume factory manual. I forget the publisher. Our pull-handle ebrakes are notoriously bad. I can't wait to swap out my transfer case for the gear driven unit so I can mount a t-case brake (and subsequently ditch my rear drums for a full floater conversion and disk brakes! yaay!) and be done with those shady ebrake bits for good. I'd recommend turning your truck off and parking in gear for photo ops... I know it hurts, but I have to do it myself. My ebrake handle is like an art, if I dont pull hard enough, nothing happens. If I pull too hard, nothing happens, if I just pull it right, it'll lock on. I'm sick of it!

mrddk92

Mine was snapped when I got my truck. I was able to ge some cable of the same gauge from lowes along with a couple ferrules?( I can't remember ehat theyr called but it just a round pice of aluminum with a hole in it) u just use those to make a stopper an the cable end. To do that you just puyt it on the cable and smash it, or I guess u could solder it too. It was a pain to get it to fit in the handle assembly, I had to pry it open in order to get the stopper into the slot. Once I did that I just had to connect the other end to the lever on the rear pass side. Then I just had to adjust it by making it shorter so it would lock up the rear hubs. Now I just have to pull the lever all the way and. They lock up great. I would highly recommend trying this because it only costs like 5 bucks. Let me know if u have any questions.

Jay351

im sure the small tires help too 33" mud tires on steelies are HEAVY

isaac338

the trick to getting the parking brake cable out of the handle is all in those two little silver ratcheting bits near the top. hard to describe but there's picture tutorials on here if you search. you need to grab those silver things and pull (twist? rotate?) them upwards, and the brake handle should push in further than it normally can (gotta take out the switch first). that pushes the whole assembly through the back so you can remove the cable end.

pwd

I'm having a problem with my e-brakes as well. One of the pins that holds the end of the cable to the backing plate on the rear wheel went missing, so I ordered the parts and put it back together. Now the parking brake barely holds the truck, in fact if its steep enough the truck will actually start to creep.

Has anyone tried this? I've tried it a few times and nothing yet.
^^ Are you saying while holding down the brake pedal, set and release the parking brake repeatedly?

I can't tell if maybe just the front brakes are holding it and not enough tension on the back. Is there a way to manually adjust this? I noticed that now the handle doesn't come out as far (not as many clicks) as it did when it was working fine.

Birchyboy

This is a good tip. Mine isn't working well, but I never thought of just trying to adjust it several times at once. Hopefully this will work.

pwd

So does anyone know how to 'reset' the parking brake adjustment? I'd like to have to amount of 'clicks' between 11 and 17 like the FSM says. I tried driving in reverse then applying the brake pedal to auto adjust the drums several times today, but it made little difference. It still doesn't hold the truck all that well.

EDIT: I just went out to play around with it and with the parking brake not engaged, the right rear cable has almost no slack with approx 3mm of play (or 0.118 inches) .The left rear has about 1cm (or 0.4 inches) of play. Is that normal?

Moonfish

You can adjust it between the front and back cables beside the transfer case on my '90. Passenger side right by the frame. Both cables are attached to a lever and there's a threaded rod adjustment on the lever.

I replaced the cable as mentioned above. It works but it doesn't really grab like the small cars I've had. They'll lock up the wheels but the PU might keep you from rolling on a slight hill? That's about all the success I've had so far. I adjusted it to 15 clicks and it works slightly better there than when it is say 20, then it doesn't much grab at all. I'm gonna oil up the arms on the brake drums and see if that has an effect. Is there a part in the brake drum that is essential to the function besides the auto adjusters?