Just purchased a 1998 Ranger. Parking brake did not work, cables were froze up. I replaced all of the cables yesterday and rebuilt the rear drum brakes with new shoes, etc. Thought that would do the trick. Followed my Chilton manual on how to do the parking brake job.

Once I got it all back together I tried parking brake. I can push all the way to floor and cable gets tighter, but does not activate the parking brake. Truck still rolls.

On my truck there is no adjustment for parking brake cable, it says it is "self adjusting".

Any thoughts on what to try next? I will note that the rear brakes seem to work better at speed now that I rebuilt them.

 

Did you put that cross bar back in correctly?

 

Make sure to have the correct adjustment for the drums as well. It will definitely help once you get it to start tightening. Don't want to make it to tight and shorten the life of your new brake job.