mattn124

Hello,

My truck is a manual transmission so I use the emergency brake a lot. I recently lived in a house on a hill so I used it all the time, not as much now but still quite a bit.

I have a trailer hooked up to my truck more often than not, and I prefer to use the brake plus have it in gear when parked.

Recently, my parking brake's holding power has begun to fade away. I did accidentally move the truck with the brake on, but it was only a few feet. I let a buddy drive it and I think he did the same only a little longer.

What is the proper way to re-adjust tension? I have been tightening the adjustment bolt/nut that is outboard of the drivers side frame, right below where the cab and bed come together. Problem is, now I have adjusted that all the way down, i cannot tighten it anymore.

I am ok for now, the parking brake does function but not very well. Pretty soon it's going to be too weak to hold the truck still on even a small incline.


have I been adjusting it properly? Am I suppose to make the adjustments in this manner?

My truck has rear drum brakes. I did put new shoes on a couple years ago and had the drums turned(machined). I know there is a little adjuster you can access from the back side of the drum to tighten/loosen the brakes; but i always thought that was for the regular braking action and not the parking brake.

Next question: How difficult is it to replace these cables if they are too stretched out now?

Thanks for any replies.

Matt

Russ Roth

On a '99 it's part of the same system. First thing I would do is manually adjust your rear brakes up snug but you will need to back off the nut on the parking brake cable before you do and readjust after. Mine are notorious for not self adjusting like they are supposed to and that will/should make a difference. Start there and get back with results.

SIXSLUG

The proper way to adjust drum brakes and disc brakes parking shoes is thru the starwheels behind the backing plates, not the tensioner nut on the cable.

Chock the front wheels, jack up the rears, and put it in neutral. Adjust the starwheels until the wheels drag and back off one stroke. You're done.

mattn124

Ok, I will give it a go.

According to my factory service manual, the drums are supposed to self-adjust, so I thought the only adjustment I needed to make was at the tensioner nut.

I will back the tensioner nut on the cable off a lot and then adjust the drums until they are good and go from there.

I hope this works, will save me from having to buy a new cable!

On that note, does this cable ever wear out or stretch too much to be useable? I hope I didn't stretch mine out too bad running that tensioner nut as far as i did

SIXSLUG

It is used for the initial pedal set at the factory. I imagine they can stretch a little over time, I gave mine a 1/4" turn at 100K.

Your self adjusters rarely seem to ever work for very long. I would pull the drums and clean and lube the shafts on the starwheels. Mine were pretty dry and not turning very well. Once you get them re installed, make sure you have them in, one facing forward, one facing back, and mark the direction of spread on your backer plate so you don't have to figure it out later, that makes it a lot easier and faster to adjust...

Redlinear

Clean everything inside the brake drum and make sure the adjuster in there works easily.
To adjust tighter, put truck in reverse and push the e-brake pedal while the truck is backing up.
If everything is free and working properly inside the drums, that will make the adjuster turn and tighten the ebrake.