tightening the Ebrake cable?

twitchee2

Member
Hi, my ebrake Barely works. i clicks all the way up to the top and it cant hold it on a hill. If i put it in park, pull the brake all the way and then let off the pedal it will roll down till the Park stops it a couple inches later. Now i just got donw adjusting the rear brakes so they are nice and tight, no leaky seals or bearing. My question is, is there any way to adjust the cable itself. mine truck has 180k on it, theres gotta be some stretch in it. Hopefully someone has dont this and can point me in the right direction. thanks.
 
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If peel back the rubber flaps around the lever, you will see the cable and how it is connected to the lever. There is an adjustment mechanism in there. Loosen the lock nut, make the adjustment, retighten the locknut. The factory specs call for 7-9 clicks. It can be done with the consol in place, but if thats too hard, then remove the consol.
The parking brake bellcrank also needs adjustment, in case you missed that when you did the shoes.
 
If peel back the rubber flaps around the lever, you will see the cable and how it is connected to the lever. There is an adjustment mechanism in there. Loosen the lock nut, make the adjustment, retighten the locknut. The factory specs call for 7-9 clicks. It can be done with the consol in place, but if thats too hard, then remove the consol.
The parking brake bellcrank also needs adjustment, in case you missed that when you did the shoes.

True.
Most of the time you will never have to tighten the cable. Usually the rear brakes are out of adjustment. Usually you can adjust them by going to an open parking lot, reverse and repeatedly yank the hand/parking brake lever up. Using the hand brake usually keeps things adjusted. And/or remove the little rubber plug on the brake backplate, toward the top, and adjust.

I have issues form over use when wheeling hard lines and I'm using the hand brake to control rollback (manual trans). I have to back off the adjuster manually.
 
just had the tires off and adjusted everything, thats why i asked. Ill check the cable. I can pull it 10+ clicks and it doesnt do anything worth while if im moving.
 
Anyone found out the problem with this? I changed the bell crank because it needed replacing. I also changed the drum pads and adjusted the drums. But emergency brake still doesnt work even tho i have like 8-10 clicks when pulling it up. Last thing i could think of is the actual cable but when i pull it up. The cable pulls the bell crank and some What pulls the pads apart touching the drum
 
Did you preload the bellcranks.

There is a procedure for that.

You remove the springs and pull the arm out till it’s tight and adjust the bolt for a 1/16” gap. Then hook up the springs. Then you adjust the drum shoes. Then if it still doesn’t hold you adjust the cable.

In a nut shell.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
There's an automatic adjuster inside the drum. That little bit of cable inside the shoe helps it work. The cable moves a lever on a ratchet on the screw adjuster. Normally, the movement is not enough for the lever to reach the next tooth. When the brake shoes move far enough, the lever will engage the next tooth and turn the adjuster a little bit.

This is a slow, tiny adjustment. If you've had the brakes apart, it might take 20, 50, or even more pulls on the hand brake lever for the shoes to self-adjust. And if the adjuster is crusty and stuck, it won't ever adjust, the lever can't budge it.

If the adjusters are not working, then adjusting the cable on the lever won't help much, or for very long. You're only adjusting the bell cranks out more and more, not correcting the adjuster inside the drum.
 
Did you preload the bellcranks.

There is a procedure for that.

You remove the springs and pull the arm out till it’s tight and adjust the bolt for a 1/16” gap. Then hook up the springs. Then you adjust the drum shoes. Then if it still doesn’t hold you adjust the cable.

In a nut shell.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any info on the bellcrank preload procedure? I'm about to put everything back together today (new bellcranks and cable) and this would be great info.
 
That's strange. I just referenced that a month ago. Here's from my 2000 FSM (if I attached it correctly)
I managed to use the wayback machine and retrieve the original pdf that I linked to in post #9 but it's too big to attach it. PM me if you want it or you can try going to the original post with this wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/2017102...d-gen-t4rs/156723-bell-crank-replacement.html Post #4 is what you're looking for.

EDIT: Not sure if this will work but try this first: Wayback Machine
 

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