Can someone help me locate the place where you are supposed to be able to remove the tension from the parking brake? The service manual that I have says to stick a 5/32 in pin into the 'parking brake control' while your assistant pulls on the cable from underneath the vehicle to get slack in the cable.

2001 Ranger 3.0 XLT 4WD

Am I even in the right ballpark with this picture? I tried probing into the gold colored hole at center of picture but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

You can see the gear teeth at bottom of picture.

Am I looking in the right place?

Truck is jacked up in driveway so I'm stuck for now.

My assistant is my wife, with no mechanical experience so I can't really describe to her what to try or watch for while I pull on the cable from underneath.

thanks for any help you can give.




Picture if from straight above the parking brake foot pedal, and behind the release handle.

 

Updating this post to help the next person working on parking brake.

That IS the correct hole location, as seen in the new photo with the ice-pick sticking out. The retainer hole does not line up until your assistant pulls about 6 - 10 inches of cable out toward the rear of the vehicle. If you're holding the pick (or nail or whatever) against the surface, you will feel the hole when it lines up. Pulling on the cable from below, I felt it immediately when the pin slipped into the hole. There is apparently only one hole, which was engineered to be at the appropriate amount of slack for the cable. Once the pin was in place, you do have adequate slack to slip the rear cable(s) into their 'sockets'. According to the manual, you need to relieve that tension any time you are working on any of the parking brake cables, which seems obvious after having done it. In my case, I was replacing the passenger side rear cable.

Hope this is helpful to someone down the road.

 

Thanks for the info

 

Good to know. I just did it the hoodrat way and pulled on it with my hand while I slipped it into the clip under the door LOL

 

Thanks for the pictures especially. I've got a big fat wire harness right about there and tried the drill bit and a screwdriver. Just couldn't seem to get it. Finally got through with the long side of an allen wrench. I hadn't known I had to go in as far as I did and get the angle just right. A little tip - I used the **** end of my digging bar to tension the intermediate cable, which made it a one man thing. Again, thanks!

 

Hi Keyflower, Thank you for the feedback. It is nice to know the photo helped someone else. Maybe it was worth the proverbial 1000 words. Glad you got it.

couch