e-brake question

[76bonanza]

while fooling wiht my brake light tryed my ebrake for the first time. It does nothing. It only engages rear brakes right. Should I be able to pull the cable by the rear drums with my hand I tried neither side will budge? Think the cable just needs adjusting? I would know if they were stuck engaged right?

Any help would be good.

[alblogg]

Originally Posted by 76bonanza

while fooling wiht my brake light tryed my ebrake for the first time. It does nothing. It only engages rear brakes right. Should I be able to pull the cable by the rear drums with my hand I tried neither side will budge? Think the cable just needs adjusting? I would know if they were stuck engaged right?

Any help would be good.

It only engages rear brakes, the cables do not move that far out of the drums unless you have no lining on your shoes at all and there are a lot of travel there. Before you adjust your cables you need to check your rear brakes to see if you have any lining on them to have e brakes in the first place and be sure to check those self adjusters to see if they are stuck or rusty and not letting our brakes adjust. After you find out all this then you can check your e brake and see if the cable needs adjusting.

[76bonanza]

Well I adjusted the cable so I knew it was pulling it tight enuf.(before I read your post) It pulls all the slack out and will pull no father will not pull the cable out of the drum at all not one bit. But it takes all the slack out seems like what ever is in the drum will not budge? neither side. driving at about 20 i slowly pulled it notheing not even a hint of stopping. But the truck seems to brake fine otherwise?

[alblogg]

You probably don't have enough lining on shoes to hit drum. Like I said you need to check your linings and brake adjustment before adjusting your e brake cable.

[76bonanza]

Yes I will do that when I have time would that mean that the bake brakes are not working when I use the pedal either? They dont normal freeze up with the ebrake engaged do they? Just concerned it my do something to the brakes untill I can look at it.

[LockDoc]

I would say that your e-brake cables are probably stuck inside the cable housing. They are known for doing that if they havent been used for a long time. If you pull too hard on the handle it can engage the e-brake but it won't release, if the cables are tight inside the housing. If this happens your rear brakes will drag and you won't be able to get the brake drums off until you get the cables loosened up. If the brakes look OK I would think about replacing the rear cable assemblys. Just a heads up from someone who has been there.....

LockDoc

[76bonanza]

would you be able to feel the rear brakes dragging they dont feel like it but not sure if you could tell from just driveing. I will hopefully have time to look at them soon.

[cdowns]

it's a pain to do but you can lubricate and clean the inner brake cables// it's very time consuming but to do it right and have it last but is very cheap to do(the cost of a couple of cans of wd-40 or pbblaster and a bit of wheel bearing grease) you have to remove the cables from the backing plates then spray the heck out of the cables(i like to get them hanging in a vertical position so the spray goes down into the housing with gravity then every half hour or so just wiggle and flex the outer housing to break up the rust bond and respray ,every once in a while take plyers tring to move the inner cable from the outer housing a little bit at a time when you finally get the inner cable to move pull out of the housing (first from one end then the other)spray and wire brush it clean as good as you can, coat with grease and reinstall in the rearend and it will be good for another 25-30years not bad for a $10repair

lots of people prefer to just change to new parts tho

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by 76bonanza

would you be able to feel the rear brakes dragging they dont feel like it but not sure if you could tell from just driveing. I will hopefully have time to look at them soon.

It depends on how bad they are dragging. The easy way to tell is to jack up the back of the truck (both wheels off the ground) and try turning the wheels. You should be able to tell if they are dragging.

LockDoc

[Aarons72s]

Ok I have had to deal with all the ebrake problems. Yes they can freeze when they are set. It sounds to me like yours were frozen in the released postion. If one or both sticks your truck will fill like you are trying to tow a truck. Just pull your drums and replace the cables, and check the rest of the drums and brake rigging. The cables can be gotten at most parts store, I got mine at oreillys. I think they were less than 10 bucks apiece when I bought them a few years back.
Aaron