Folks,
Got in the truck this morning a i couldn't get my parking brake to release. I use the park brake all the time and this is the first time it has stuck on me. Is there any tricks to releasing them? i was rocking back and forth for a bit, but it didn't seem to help. Any help is appreciated!

Will

 

What is sticking, the pedal or the cables under the truck?

 

remove the nuts on the front cable where the coupling meets the rear cables. if the brakes are still locked, your rear cables are SHOT and rusted within. as a temporary fix, take a saw, die grinder or what have you, and cut the cables completely off near the backing plates This will free up your rear brakes and you can move the truck.

I wouldn't be surprised, as I had 1 year old rear cables in there that froze up.

 

Could be frozen. I see you are in Michigan

 

This was my first thought too. I went through this even with new cables. You can get things working temporarily with a small torch, or even hot water poured on the cables...right near the drivers side rear. Or sometimes you can pull them loose manually once the E-brake is released.

You need to look at the cables them selves. Do they dip down near where they hook the the bracket? If they do you need to figure out a way to get them to sit level, at a minimum, or pointed down slightly.

What happens is a little bit of water works it way into the case and pools. Then when the temps get around freezing the water will lock up your cable.

What you can also do, if you replace your cables, or if you want to take the time to remove your cables you have on there already. Is to put the cables in a 5 gal pail and cover them with used engine oil. Let them sit for a few days to get the oil in everywhere. Once out, clean the outside and then install. Still making sure to align the cables so there are no dips.

You should have no problems after that, other then making lots of rainbows.....

 

Thanks everyone, i was able to warm the cable up and it finally released. The temp did drop low last night so i assume this caused it to freeze up. I appreciate the help!

Will

 

Also in Michigan, and this just happened to me a couple hours ago! Trucks in the garage warming up right now but I think I have a bum cable, we'll see.

 

Will,

FWIW,

If you warmed up that cable, and it released, that means that the cable housing is allowing water to enter, and freezing the cable in it's sleeve. I don't think cables can be fixed, so you should replace them asap, albeit you may enjoy being stuck in parking lot somewhere when you least expect it.

 

Hey guys, another FWIW: I normally use my neighbor's steep driveway to adjust the rear brakes on my '67 Town Wagon, slamming on the brakes several times as I back down, works great. The other day I forgot what I was driving and did the same with my '90 W-350. Drove on home and parked.

Next day I fired it up, backed up at top of my own driveway and when I shifted to pull forward the rear end was sliding sideways in the mud, locked up solid! Seemed like parking brake was stuck on. Actually that backing up a moment before was one too many for brake adjustment plus lots of rain and humidity may have wetted the linings? Stuck solid.

Anyways I forced it back and forth with the 4WD front axle moving it and slammed on the brakes several times, still stuck. Finally drove down my own driveway hitting the brakes several more times. By the time I got to the bottom, maybe 300 yards total, the rear axle's brakes had finally readjusted and free'd up. It would then roll forwards in neutral so I knew it was free. Obviously it wasn't a stuck parking brake in this case...

 

I don't know of any way that the rear brakes would adjust looser under any conditions. The "adjuster" is a one way ratchet. Indeed you have to reach in with a second tool and release it to turn the star wheel adjuster toward looser.

IMHO, you had stuck cables, not related to any braking action by pedal.

 

Yes sir, you're correct up to a point and under different circumstances I might agree. However the manual adjusting method is mechanically entirely different from the 'Automatic' adjustment action. Additionally there's a problem with your theory in that I had not applied the parking brake the day before.

When I found it sliding sideways after just backing up the first time, I assumed [yeah, we all know about that one ha!] that I had a stuck parking brake or had failed to release it, and reached down to disengage it. However I immediately noticed that parking brake was not applied, nor is it my habit to use it on my level parking area. So I then applied the brakes several times going forward on my fairly steep driveway so that brake shoe's drag on drums would pull them in opposite direction from tighter adjustment occurring when backing up. It worked.

I used the truck again today, repeating the same backing up from parking space and pulling down driveway, no problems. In this whole scenario the only thing different from normal was my intentionally adjusting rear brakes tighter on my neighbor's driveway, and they certainly ended up tighter. So, I'm thinkin' as I posted.... Sure could be wrong though.