Frozen e-brake, anyone else?
 

Got into my truck this morning and the e-brake was frozen! I could move the handle but the rear brakes where seized. Had to borrow the work truck to go to class, when I got home the e-brake released fine..

This is quite the pain as I have to leave the brake off at night now, thank goodness I live on a flat street.

Anyone have any ideas how to avoid this again?

umm stop using the ebrake in the middle of winter?

if you have an auto put it in park and if you have a manual put it in gear. If your Ebrake gets frozen get underneath the truck and give the brake line a good yank to see if you can work it free then try to release it.

Just pull it out a little while you drive (about 100 yards) just enough to evap any water.

I put it in gear regarless, but I never liked to park just using the gears to hold the truck, have it in my mind that its a big strain on the gears, plus the chance of it popping out.

I was under the truck this morning trying to get it free, I ended up using my feet to try and get the cable moving. I it would only move like an inch and then go right back to where it was..

I will shoot the hinges with pb blaster see if that helps any.

Wouldnt putting on my brakes do the same thing when im pulling up to my parking spot?

I misread it,If the cables are freezing you'll need to try to flush the water out with some PB or WD-40.BTW the e-brake puts ten times more pressure than the foot brake,but only to the rear.

Well I sprayed the rear hinges down with pb blaster, hard to see sinces its dark. But tomorrow after work I will spray everything down with it.

Any other suggestions for the winter? Thanks :)


I never knew how much pressure the e-brake puts on the rear shoes, I thought it was around the same as the food brake.

Stay outta the creek!

I havnt been wheeling in months. Only thing that happend was a ton of rain but thats normal.. It didnt rain for a few days prior to it freezing over, and it didnt do it the night before that was about as cold as it was last night..

Check the cable seals too.

agreed check the seals. It happened to my old truck and I just shot wd-40 down behind the handle until it started dripping out the bottom. Never had another problem.

Are they stuck on or they just don't move at all? I'd say either your pivots on the ears are stuck up or the cable is frozen from water somewhere along the lines. On both my 82 and 92 I pulled the brake on and it stayed on. On my 82 the aluminum pivot had pretty much gone to dust and did not do anything but hold everything in one spot very well. Would not release. Had to make a new pivot for that one. On the 92 I just took it apart and cleaned and greased it up nice. Also on my 82 in the winter when I would pull the brake on sometimes it would just stick on after I had fixed it and it was from the cable freezing a bit. Just got under the truck and pulled it back and sometimes had to hit the ears on the drum assemblies. After a few years of salt they don't work so hot anymore. Don't just spray the things, take them apart and grease them up nice and fill the boot with grease as well. Hasn't hurt my two trucks yet.

Hmm, well When I released the cable and went under the truck ( wheel blocked) I could see the cable was bunched up right infront of where the pivot thing splits the power onto the two rear cables. When I got under the rear end and tryed to pull the cables that go right into the shoes, thats where it was VERY tight.