Parking/Emergency brake question

[Rubble]

On my 82 GMC K25,the park/E brake won't stay locked down,I can push the pedal all way down,but the ratchet won't lock.Do I need to pull the whole assembly out of truck,or what?? I have a couple other parts trucks to grab one from,just wanted to check before tearing into it.If it has to come out,how does it?? TIA.
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[bilfman]

Just the pedal assembly needs to be replaced.

[tucsonjwt]

Taking out that parking brake assembly is a PITA. You have to lie on the floor on your side and fish it out. I think Auto Zone has a step by step instruction or you can google it (e.g. youtube.) As I recall, the problem is gettng the side bolts and bolt through firewall to all line up. I had mine out to work on a stuck on brake light. If you strike out online you should post back here and somebody will have the service manual instructions.

[Dead Parrot]

Thank you for reminding me, mine has been doing the same thing for a while. But since my driveway is flat, I was always reminded of this when I was not at home. In my case, the release handle was not returning to the 'in' position. If I manually pushed it in, the ratchet would catch. Just applied a liberal amount of WD-40 to anything that moved when the release handle was pulled or pushed and now it works like it is supposed to. Might be worth a try. If the return spring is missing or broke, it looks like it can be replaced without pulling the unit out.

[Rubble]

Thanx for the replies,I will try the return spring first.It looked like pulling the whole assembly out would be a PIA.This truck has a mico lock on it as well,might be easier to get that working instead.
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[tucsonjwt]

When my parking brake light would not go out, I ended up adding a spring between the parking brake pedal arm (there is a convenient hole near the top of that arm) and the bottom of the dash (found an unused hole there also) and that put enough tension on the pedal arm to move it away from the switch contact. My problem was the brake lever did not return far enough to disengage the brake light switch.

[spencer_41188]

if your having troble with getting the cable on/off the pedal

under the truck start at the rear end and fallow the cable foward theres a cage that the 2 cables become 1 theres a nut on one in that cage and the other ataches to the cable that comes from the cab

losen the nut on the one cable. the other cable you will need 2 pairs of plyers/vice grips twist and push togeather and you will see how they come apart

then push the cable going to the cab foward

you should now have plenty of slack to move the pedal so you can work with it insted of cussing at it lol

[spencer_41188]

Originally Posted by tucsonjwt

When my parking brake light would not go out, I ended up adding a spring between the parking brake pedal arm (there is a convenient hole near the top of that arm) and the bottom of the dash (found an unused hole there also) and that put enough tension on the pedal arm to move it away from the switch contact. My problem was the brake lever did not return far enough to disengage the brake light switch.

all you have yo do is tighten that nut i talked about in the previous post

[tucsonjwt]

Nut tightening did not work for me - maybe not enough travel left?