It is weird. One thing’s for certain... when I disconnect the e brake cable from the D/S drum the brakes no longer lock up. After an hour or so on the trails, I would always start to smell brakes and the truck wouldn’t do the slow roll in “Drive”. So I’d go release the drums manually through the adjuster hole, and then I’d be good again.

I will take a pic tomorrow in the daylight, but it looks the same as everyone’s, just with the end diconnected.

My e brake (when I still had it connected) would still work without the bracket. And I agree, the cable is being stretched/pulled and essentially pulling the e brake like you say... and because it’s doing it at the drum it’s adjusting the drum pads to the point they get so tight they start to lock up after a while, and it can’t be released unless I stick the screwdriver in there and turn the little gear inside to let off the tension.

I’m thinking about maybe trying to get another small clip (from Toyota) like the one on the end that connects the cable to the drum (with the pin/cotter pin), and maybe I can adapt it to be sort of an extension link, if that makes sense... Like drill a hole in it and connect the old one to it, and then it to the drum. It would give me about an extra inch. Wouldn’t we all like an extra inch, haha?