Here are some notes on a weird frozen brake problem I had with a 2000 Ranger. This winter the truck was driven in LA during one of those torrential storms, and then parked in the garage with the emergency brake on for maybe three weeks. When we went to use the truck again it would not move, either forward OR backward. A whole lot of this, that, and the other thing was tried to get it to move but nothing worked. We jacked up each rear wheel and one side spun just fine and the other was locked solid. We ruled out seized/rusted brake cable since it wouldn't even go backwards in reverse. We jacked up the truck and the drum was frozen solid to something. My friend Al used his puller on the drum and eventually we got it off. It looks like the drum rear shoe had adhered itself to the drum.

The attachment should show a picture of the offending brake shoe. It looks like some big chunks rusted to the drum, probably because the lining is semi metallic. Just a guess.

We had to replace the brakes and resurface the drums. There wasn't much to take off, maybe .010 to .015. There was some collateral damage from the pulling debacle. The pin on the brake cylinder was bent a little, the automatic adjuster was bent a little, and the hold down springs were now useless. We interchanged the pins on the brake cylinder so that the bent pin was forward where it would not interfere with any of the parking brake crap and the automatic adjuster was only flared a little and still turned freely so was re used. The other wrecked parts were replaced with a kit from Autozone. All in all, everything was restored for about $75. Maybe these notes will be helpful to someone else. This was a weird one, though.

Rick
San Jose, CA

 

Nothing weird about that, happens to a lot of Ranger drums. Up here they freeze in winter also, no parking brake all winter unless you're just stopping real quick.

I think Ford had a TSB on my old 01 that said to lube the contact points in the drum, but that solved nothing.

 

I'll add to above, I have to use my parking brake because I have a manual trans but if the temperature warms up by even the littlest amount and gets cold my brakes will always freeze up. If they freeze up just give er some gas until you hear a huge bang and then you'll be moving.

 

I parked my truck slightly downhill last night (in my driveway so I wouldn't have as much to shovel this morning) so I engaged the eBrake.

This morning, my driver side rear wheel refuses to move unless I put the truck in 4Hi or 4Lo or reverse. Going forward, the brakes seem to squeal and the truck can barely move unless I stomp on the gas. Going in reverse, It doesn't seem to have any problems.

This seems like the eBrake, right?

I've searched on the forum and some people have had luck by putting their truck in reverse, getting to a decent speed and then slamming on the brakes until they hear a loud bang. I tried this, but it didn't work. I think it's because there's still snow on the ground and the tire can't get enough traction to dislodge the brake mechanism.

It's near freezing temps outside and I don't have a garage to do any work/investigating. Any other suggestions that I can try? Otherwise, I'll have to pray that the shop up the street is open tomorrow so I can take it there. I return to work on Wednesday, so there's only one possible day for repairs.