I swaped my 99' 7.5 with the 3.73 gears for a 03' 8.8 with 4.10's and everything went pretty smoothe for the most part. Got it on and connected brakes and bled em then went to connect the E brake lines but something wasn't right, figured out the line from the driver side drum was about 10 inches shorter than the old one. Ok no prob, swaped for the old one, but then got it connected (correctly, by memory of old set up and by looking at a 96 explorer with the same set up). But there is a huge amount of slack in the lines, when I crank down on the E pedal, it pulls slightly, not enough to engage brakes, and when released it is drooping about a 10" below normal path of lines. When I was doing the swap, I uses some vice grip pliers up front at the exit hole of the E pedal to pull some line out and keep it slack so that I could then undo the connection for the axle, I don't know if I screwed something up there or not.

I will try to get some pics up in a hour or so to help.

So I guess I'm wondering if anyone knows why it did this and how to fix it or if there is a way to adjust he E brake to get rid of the slack.

Thanks for the help, Nik.

 

So no one knows if you can adjust the E brake, or anything that could possibly help?

 

are you useing a disk brake 8.8?

 

Drums, from a 03' ranger.

 

I have the exact problem, though i cant even figure out how to connect the single line to the 2 lines going to each drum.

Right now im driving with the e brake disconnected until i figure something out. I went from a 97' 7.5 3.73 to an 04' 8.8 4.10.

 

try and get the rear cables from the same wheelbase as your truck with the size drums that are on your 8.8, like if you have a reg cab, short bed truck and the 8.8 has 10" drums, get the rear cables for a reg cab short bed truck with 10" drums. there are no adjustments for the ebrake, you just need the correct cables.

 

Rocket man, the shorter line that goes from the driver rear drum goes above the bracket with the hole that the passenger rear drum line snaps into. I cant remember which cable goes into the which spot on the tri connector, I'll snap some pics in a lil, and I think that I will use the passenger side cable from the old axle to see if that helps. Check back in a couple hours.

 

Sorry camera being gay, but I will tell you that you must use your original Emergeny brake lines to take the slack out. But you can look under a ranger of explorer in a parking lot for a quick glance to take notes on and youll then be able to attach lines. Once you have attached the lines press the E brake down, it will feel real easy the first time, then release the E brake, then press again and it should be normal. Hope that this helps. If I get my camera working sometime soon, I'll try to remember to get a pic up.