Weak Parking Brake?

[Vegas4Runner]

'93 3.0 5psd.
How tight does your parking brake hold on an incline? I know this looks like a dumb question, but this is my first 4runner and I wonder if maybe they are just weak in areas other than horesepower. On just about any incline my parking brake will slip unless I also have it in gear - meaning the gearbox is doing most of the holding.
When I bought it a year ago I did full brake jobs front and back (full flush and new pads/ shoes/ rear hardware) and it brakes just fine while driving, but the parking break has never held well. I have played with the adjustment wheel where the single cable splits to the two wheels to the point that I could only pull the cable a click or two and it will still not hold, so it is not just a matter of a stretched cable.
Also, sometimes the cable seems really tough to pull and other times it is like butter, but either way it never holds very tight.
Any thoughts?

 

[alphyn]

I can understand the parking break not being able to hold back the full weight of your vehicle on a steep incline, but it should be able to hold your vehicle on a moderate incline.

Here are a few thoughts I had, which may or may not be valid and are in no particular order.

1) Cable is snagged somewhere and intermittently frees itself. You've been tightening it when it is snagged, not when it is free.

2) Cable tightening mechanism is broken and is not holding cable tension properly.

3) Rear brakes are malfunctioning. Calipers/Drums are frozen or broken.

4) Parking brake lever assembly is broken.

Sorry for the generic response, but that's what I would check first.

 

[Vegas4Runner]

I can understand the parking break not being able to hold back the full weight of your vehicle on a steep incline, but it should be able to hold your vehicle on a moderate incline.

Here are a few thoughts I had, which may or may not be valid and are in no particular order.

1) Cable is snagged somewhere and intermittently frees itself. You've been tightening it when it is snagged, not when it is free.

2) Cable tightening mechanism is broken and is not holding cable tension properly.

3) Rear brakes are malfunctioning. Calipers/Drums are frozen or broken.

4) Parking brake lever assembly is broken.

Sorry for the generic response, but that's what I would check first.

Thanks for your response, generic or otherwise. I am intrigued about the idea of the cable binding somewhere. It seems to be rather simply routed and I can't think of anywhere it could get snagged, but that would likely best explain the inconsistent draw I get on the parking brake.
Has anyone had this happen to them before and if so, where did yours get snagged up?
It has been raining like mad for a couple of days or I would go crawl under the rig and take a closer look at the cable.
The other ideas you mentioned were good suggestions but don't seem to fit with what I have done so far.
I would love to hear from others as to their opinions before I tear into the brakes this weekend.

 

[SUBTEGRAL]

No actually that was a good response.

I don't know. Mine works screaming good.

 

[Idrv2yotas]

try to manually adjust the rear brakes or drive in reverse up to 5 mph and pull your parking brake lever to stop the car.

 

[Vegas4Runner]

I'll give the reverse driving thing a try tomorrow. But in the meantime has anyone ever had trouble with their brake cable binding on something, and if so, on what?

 

[Idrv2yotas]

report back for the fix