Hello, i have a 73' ford f100 and it is my project to restore it, so it can be my daily driver to school and such. I'm having a problem with the parking brake and it won't click in to stop my truck. I'm wondering if these cables for the parking brake are suppose to be this loose because i can barely pull on it and i can move it back and forth. Any help will be appreciated and you might have to bare with me on the truck parts and terminology because i'm only 16 and i have not very much experience mechanical wise.

 

Welcome to FTE. Are you saying that the parking brake pedal won't stay down when you push on it?
The cables look about right to me.
Don't worry about your lack of experience, you can learn anything you need to know right here.

 

yes, the pedal won't stay down no matter how hard i push it

 

Okay, The pedal has a ratchet mechanism that locks the pedal in place when you depress it. It works similar to the mechanism in a mechanic's ratchet.
More than likely the little pawl that locks the pedal in place has frozen from rust and corrosion. Get some PB Blaster, Kroil or even WD-40 and spray up in the top of the pedal assy and work it back and forth see if you can free up the locking mechanism.

 

the ratchet/pawl thing is completely independant of the cables. I cut the cables off mine because they were rusted out, and while playing with this pinion brake I was kinda experimenting with, I learned that the pedal works up and down all by itself. So slack in the lines won't affect it, though I guess if you had literally NO slack it wouldn't ratchet down far enough to engage the pawl, or latch. But you can apply a lot of force with your foot, probably enough to break the cable if that was the case.

 

you can learn anything you need to know right here.

 

First get the ratchet mechanism functioning like Mike said. Then make sure the rear brake shoes are adjusted properly. At this point if the emergency brake pedal goes all the way to the floor and the brakes don't hold you can adjust them by taking the slack out of the cables using the adjuster located in the upper left corner of your picture. Lots of luck with your new truck.

 

There's a curly-Q spring that works in conjunction with the pawl, it tends to snap. Ford didn't supply it, nor the pawl, you had to buy the whole enchilada.

 

thanks for the quick replies i'm gonna go at it tomorrow so i have more time to play with it. and if i have any questions i'l post it here.

 

alright so i looked into the parking break and honestly saw no visual problems i even got my grand pa and uncle to look at it and we all together couldn't find out what the problem is.

But maybe some good news, my grand pa has another f100 at his body shop which is a 76' so i'm gonna check to see if that parking brake works and if it does put it on my truck.

 

If parking brake cables are out of adjustment, or one or more has snapped, parking brake won't work.

Front cable attaches to equalizer bar (e-bar) that the 2 rear cables attach to. There's a threaded adjustment rod, passes thru e-bar, has two nuts, one on either side of it. Tightning/loosening nuts adjusts all 3 cables,

 

where is the e bar located at?

 

The front parking brake cable leads right to it.

 

Try pushing in your e-brake release lever, mine sometimes sticks and stays pulled out in the release position

 

Here's the equalizer bar