so earlier this morning, i went out to do some shopping in my 88 pickup. the only parking spot i could find at wal-mart had a big snowbank, so me being myself i pulled right up on it, turned off the truck and pulled my parking brake. but it was stuck, i thought it was frozen so i just gave it a big yank. and the whole freakin handle pulled all the way out! so i have it all ripped apart in my garage. what happened was the little pin at the end of the cable fell out of the hole, it didn't break. my problem is that i can't figure out how to get the handle back in the slot it goes in. and also the cable is stuck i tried pulling it out with pliers but it just won't budge! PLEASE HELP ME! any ideas?

 

Hey buddy
I had a similar problem in my case the cable snapped...
to get the handle back in the track so the ratchet teeth can grab it you need to push the "tooth lever" up. You may have to remove the lower dash "knee bolster" (the bottom part of the dash) involves one bolt and a half dozen or so screws.
Look at the top of the e-Brake shaft near the front you should see one or two silver coloured tabs sticking up from the top of the black shaft push the down (they will move sort of towards you) and push the handle back in while squeezing the release trigger and half turning the handle like normal. The shaft should slide right back in.
As for replaceing the pin & cable I really can't say but it should be a simple job once you get to it.
Hope this helped
Merry Christmas Aviator

 

all the threads on here and no one had any real advice when i did mine a few weeks ago so i took a ton of pictures and complied a bunch of tips

e-brake thread

 

as far as the cable goes perhaps you can loosen or even disconnect it from under the truck at the adjustment site