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Does anyone know of a systematic way to find out what is wrong with your emergency brake and fix it? I've had my ranger for like 4 years and ha replaced the middle cable, hardware in the drums, and looked over the whole thing, but still doesn't work. The cable pulls and the back brakes move but it doesn't hold the truck. When I got it the previous owner had a homemade tensioner on the cable so I figured once I replaced it it would work, it didn't. I'm just wondering how I go about figuring out exactly what is causing it from not holding the truck from moving?
This provides equal movement of the two rear parking brake cables with the movement of the ONE parking brake pedal cable
Take pictures of the assembly
Disassemble it and make sure BOTH rear cables move and are pulled tight with same travel distance, could have a stretched cable or a frozen cable
If one cable needs to be pulled a lot farther out to get tight then only one brake will be on with pedal down
Just a heads up, Parking brakes work best to prevent the vehicle from rolling Forward, don't work so well to prevent vehicle from rolling Backwards, that's just the Physics of brake shoes and drums
i.e. if Parking brake is on you can back out of driveway or parking spot but then can't go Forward, lol, everyone has had that happen, "OOPS forgot to release the brake"
So grain of salt when parking facing uphill, turn wheels to the curb just to be sure
Thanks I'm gonna check this all out today. I had a stick car in highschool and didn't remember the part about e brakes not really stopping you from going backwards downhill but my dad said the same thing as you so I must just not remember right
Hey so the first link took me to a post by you above changing seats out. Yea I replaced the cable that people usually put the tensioner on so I know that one is good. Sunday I'm going to try and get my rear tires off and send you a picture of the setup on both to see if I even have all the parts on there that I need. I am very curious though as to why it would not stop a vehicle from going backwards but it would forward because as long as the shoes are clamped tight onto the drum I don't understand why it would matter what direction it tries to roll?
Drum brakes work OK forward but need more pressure applied when going backwards
Being older I had many vehicles with drum brakes on all 4 wheels and NO power assist, lol
And you really had to stand on the pedal to stop when going backwards
The explanation I got was that because of the design of the mechanism, it was "self energizing" when going forward, which you could feel when braking going forward, you had to let off on the pedal a bit or you would stop too quickly, something you just got used to with 4 wheel drums
"self energizing" from what I can tell is that in the forward direction when the shoes contact the drum it causes the shoes to move slightly on the back plate and this increases the force pushing shoes against the drum
In reverse there is no "self energizing" so more pressure was required
So outside of that info I don't have a clue as to why Parking Brakes don't hold as well facing uphill, but its been that way in every vehicle I have own with rear drum brakes
Now vehicles with rear disc brakes and smaller drum with 2 shoes seem to hold better facing uphill but I think that is because they didn't need to be designed for braking, just for holding
This may be a dumb question but I need to ask it anyway. How can I know if all the cables are moving and the correct distance and if it's moving the brake shoes because in order to see the brake shoes obviously the wheel has to be off and the rotor but then if you expand the break there's nothing to stop it? Like when I push the emergency brake I don't even know if it's moving the brake shoes at all. Sorry I've done a lot of engine stuff to my Ranger but I've never messed with brakes on any vehicle besides putting on new brake pads which is easy enough
Block a front tire
Put trans in neutral
Jack up both rear wheels
Spin the rear wheels, brake shoes should drag a bit but not much
Apply parking brake
Check both rear wheels again
If drums are off and parking brake cable is not connected to brake shoe then you should be able to slide it's end back and forth in its sheath and see/hear that at the Equalizer on driver's side outer frame under the cab/front bed area
If there is a spring on the equalizer, take a picture of it, then remove one end of the spring, that will allow both cables to the rear to slide in and out easier for testing
Hey Ron here's the picture of my equalizer and I don't believe there is a spring. I also put a mark on the two cables near it and then put the emergency brake on and they both look like they moved about the same length. Everything seems like it should be working and it will stop the tires when they're spinning but not enough that I can't still rotate them by hand easily. Also when I free spin the tires before I put the parking brake on it feels like the brake is adjusted enough that it may not even technically easily spin right now so I don't think just adjusting the brakes more would necessarily do it?
Okay so I just pulled the tires and drums off and with the emergency brake on I was still able to slide the rotor forward a bit so obviously it's not putting out enough pressure but yet my brake shoes seem considerably worn already and I just put these on like 2 months ago. So it seems like they may be rubbing too much except when I actually want them to to hold my truck still. Do these not look very worn down to you?
Okay the more I mess around with it I see exactly what's happening. The cord that goes from the top and around down to the back of the self adjusters with the spring on it isn't putting any force to pull it up against the self-adjusting assembly. The little metal hook part that holds it counter to the spring cord is too strong and I think the cord with the spring on is slightly too long. Hopefully these pictures will explain it better than I did.
Yeah I understand that but if all the parts are new and that's where the spring is pooling that little arm too how can I make it beyond the star wheel? I just had replaced the drum brake hardware and it was touching at first and then when I went to check my e-brake last week after you commented this is how it looks. Is it possible that the spring and steel wire rope going around are short enough? I checked it with three others and they're all the same length but that seems to be the only thing that could possibly pull the arm up enough to hit the star wheel.
I'm guessing since my front cable attached to the pedal moves like 3 inches and the back 2 that split off to each side only move about 1/2" that that would mean the back 2 cables are stretched? The cable along the frame rail definitely hangs when the pedal is disengaged so one of the cables has to be stretched but how do you tell which one it is? The intermediate cable is new that's why I assumed it's the back ones
10-21-2023
