Gizmo52

Hey everyone,

so recently my brakes have been gettin worse and worse and my parking brake was beginning to not hold. So I got rear seals and shoes an did the rear brakes last night. All is well withy normal brakes however my parking break doesn't work at all. I know my shoes are adjusted correctly as my cable adjuster is at about half right now. The ebrake worked before so it should work now. But for some reason when I push the peddle down it goes straight to the floor and has no back pressure on it.

Did I mess something up? I also change all the hardware and reused the drums cause the one I ordered were wrong and I needed to get the job done. The truck is a 1990 d250 cummins 5 speed with a dana 70 3.55 posi

Any help is greatly appreciated
Thanks again,
​​​​​​​​Tom

maybe368

It could be something as simple as a broken cable. Look under the drivers side behind the driver's seat, there is where the adjustment to the cable is. Tug on it in both sides and coming from the pedal. The fact that neither side is grabbing leads me to believe that the cable retainers may have failed and the cables detached.Either way, you are looking at disassembly...Mark

Jim5870

When releasing the P.B. push down on the parking brake before hitting the release and let the pedal up gently.
I've seen it happen where a person just releases the brake, and it slams up, and the parking brake cable inside the drum re bounds and jumps off it's guide.

mknittle

Thanks. I have never seen that but I can see it happening.

maybe368

I use my foot to dampen the brake release anyway because it beat the rubber stop to death on the original e-brake assembly. The metal tab that the stop was connected to broke off. Not a bad idea to make it a habit...Mark

j_martin

I have seen many new brake shoes with poor shape where the parking brake engages them. I welded up one set to make them work. Since I have always looked the brake shoes over before I buy them. The last set I bought that look good was Centrix.

Gizmo52

Thanks for all the help guys. I gotta disassemble tonight anyways to change the drum cause the ones I originally got were wrong so I'll take a look at all the things you've mentioned

Gizmo52

Can anyone describe how the wishbone or the parking brake engages the top peg of te shoes? Is it possible to accidently install then with the litte pivot bracet in the wron place so that it won't engage?

bigragu

Here's the closest one on the DTR members pics that I found, where the pivot assembly isn't lathered up with high heat brake lube and you can see its pivot function.
I use this pic exclusively to make sure I install all springs correctly after a disassemble. I believe this pic belongs to ThrashingCows.

j_martin

The brake shoes have a half moon cut in the top that functions as the stop when it hits the pivot assembly mount. Above and below said half moon cut should be two flat places that engage the tangs on the parking brake lever. One tang pushes the top shoe rear ward by the top flat, and the other tang pushes the front shoe forward by the lower flat. At rest, there should be a small amount of clearance between the tangs and their respective flat.

Many, if not most of the new shoes I have tried to purchase are all assembled on the same blank that has a defective or missing top flat. That effectively kills the action of the parking brake.

You'd have to be pretty creative to improperly assemble the parking brake lever assembly. Don't get me wrong. No matter how much effort is put into idiot proofing things, it's a fact that idiots are just too ingenious to thwart.

thrashingcows

Nope not mine.....but thanks for the thought. I have (now had) posted a pic very similar to that one though.....so can see why the confusion....

bigragu

Now I'm wondering if it belongs to BC847 Dave?

BHD

That's a good pic, but I think the top spring (brown) is in upside down, the bend should point up to clear the hub assembly. Some spring kits come with a straight top spring that works ok.

Gizmo52

Thanks for all the help everyone! I got done with the driver side assembly at about 2am Monday night turns out I was way over tired I actually put the piece with the finger that engage the shoes 100 percent wrong. It was upside down and backwards (face palm) all is good now parking brake works shoes are still wearing in so it doesn't hold to well but non the less it's back together correctly! Thanks again you guys are great!

bigragu

Great catch, BHD, and I looked at my last photo of my set up, taken a month and a half ago when I swapped out my wheel cylinders, and mine where with the upper springs loop curved upwards. Cool! Did something right, for once, lol!