Common

The rod is tightened all the way and even though the truck stays parked with the brake engaged, it feels too loose.

Can I do anything without removing the drums?

(Do our drums have that neat little starwheel?)

Box5

thats better than not having a parking brake, lol. My mechanism under the dash stopped working and for the life of me cant get the last bolt in the corner to get it out to fix it.

Sorry I cant be of more help, the only adjustment i know of is the one along the frame rail.

crobtex

There is an adjustment nut/bracket on the cable under the truck. If you can't get enough out of that, you will need to adjust the rear brakes with "that neat little star wheel". I had to replace my rear pads to get mine to adjust correctly.

Hmmm, your's is a '97 and mine's a '99, so they may not be the same, but worth checking.

Common

Do you have disc or drum?

SIXSLUG

Don't adjust the connector under the cab. You need to remove the dust caps and adjust the starwheels. On my 01.5 its down on the drivers side and up on the passenger. I have rear discs but the starwheels should turn in the same direction to adjust. You can use a screwdriver but the proper tool is pretty cheap at an auto parts store.

You need to put the adjustment back to the stock location if you tightened the under cab thing. Just jack up the rear and use jack stands. Turn the wheel and turn the starwheel until you feel a slight drag. These things need to be lubed and get stuck if you loosen them all the way. Its easy to pull a tire and drum to get at them if this happens.

That tensioner under the cab is to allow the factory to preload the parking brake cable so you get proper tension when you depress the parking brake. Its not meant to adjust the tension on the shoes. Do it once, do it right.

Kurt

crobtex

I'm sure you know more about this than me, but the cable adjust worked for me until well over 100K miles. When the star wheel adjust wouldn't give me enough parking brake (150K), I replaced the rear pads on my non-disk rear brakes.

infidel

The factory service manual says in bold letters with exclamation marks on both ends not to adjust the e-brake without adjusting the shoes first.
What happens if you tighten up the cable with loose shoes is the brakes will rub, overheating and wearing fast.

justme-

Whoa- the cable adjust under the cab is NOT to adjust the brakes, it's to adjust the bias of the parking brake between the wheels! You know, to make sure both wheels apply evenly. I'm going by my 96 FSM, - there is no adjustment for the parking brakes. The adjustment under the cab is only for replacement of cables- the rear brakes of the truck when within spec and adjusted properly eliminate the need to adjust the parking break. In other words, if your parking brake won't hold (mine won't either) and you've tried adjusting the rear brakes (the star wheel- or, just back up and stop... you know they are automatic adjusters) then you need new rear brakes.
I would suggest replacing the cables when doing the rear brakes to save on work.

*edit* there physically is no way to adjust the cable tension on both rear cables on my truck, only the bias between them. I'm going to have to look at the FSM's for a few later years.

Dave Miller

On my 97 I adjust the rear brakes first by jacking up truck and use star wheel to get till I can spin the wheel about 1 revolution. Then I adjust the parking brake adjuster under the truck, at the junction of the cables, so when parking brake is pushed on 2-3 clicks the wheels and can't turn. I then verify when on a steep incline that the parking brake holds when applied fully.

After repeating that if it won't hold I replace the brakes and repeat. Adjust star wheel on both brakes so wheels can turn just before slight drag on wheels and then adjust parking brake with 2-3 clicks on with wheels that won't spin and check full application of parking brake.

If new brakes don't solve your problem then time for checking parking brake cables or replacing them

Works for me.

Danavilla

My '98 owners manual recommended adjusting the rear brakes periodically. That effectively also adjusted the parking brake.

The truck had automatic adjusters on the rear wheels that engage each time the brakes are applied while backing up. The service tech told me that most people just don't apply the brakes hard or often enough when backing for the adjusters to keep up. I made a point of stepping on the brake firmly several times when backing out of the garage and never needed to adjust them between replacement.

Dan