I need to get my E-brake pads replaced. I should have stopped when I was doing my rear wheel bearings because I noticed they were down to almost nothing but well I didn't. I don't want to be on a boat ramp this summer and not have good E-brakes. You know how I need a how to with pictures and I found this one for a Super duty - I'm assuming it's the same for Ex or are there any quirky differences on an Ex. I do have a 10.5 from a Superduty with LS in my truck but when I search for parts I'm getting different sizes of pads as options depending on if I put in 2000 Ex or a 2002 SD (donor truck for my axle). Common sense tells me I need to get the 2002 SD ones.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-pictures.html

 

That was a great thread by Gunnerdog. I would go with the SD ones (gotta be those).

 

Shoes, not pads.

There is absolutely no difference between the parking brakes between an Excursion and any '99 to '04 SRW Pickup.

If you are relying on the parking brake I would suggest three things: Get Ford Genuine shoes, not Motorcraft (red box) or any aftermarket supplier.

I doubt that you are going to be able to obtain the OE rear rotors (Genuine) which had a grit blasted drum surface to better grip the shoes. The best way to handle this situation is to take the rear rotors to someone who can grit blast the drum surface only to develop this improved, high friction surface.

Make sure the shoe adjustment is close but not dragging on the drum surface. Most drum service brake have a running clearance of 0.025" while we were required to set the clearance at 0.015" for all testing, the same as it was for the production line parts. running clearance would pass or fail the NHTSA FMVSS 105 parking brake test.

The other situation is I would carefully check the backing plates around the shoe should down pins for rusting as this is the typical failure mode for the parking brake.

 

Yes meant "shoes" bad use of terms on my part.

Bit confused on your other comments. I get the ford oem part suggestion on the shoes, but are you saying that if I use these geniune ford shoes then the inside surface of the rotor needs to be "gritted" to make these function properly? I do not have the original OEM rotors on this truck they are after market EBC rotors. I have no problem paying for an original OEM part if that is what I need to keep my truck from being yanked into the lake this summer, just not sure if you mean they must go together. Not sure I'm willing to go have the "gritting done" unless it's an absolute "have to". If I have aftermarket rotors is there a better choice in this situation for shoes?

 

I would get the cheapest ones from the nearest parts store. They are rarely used and all they do is hold your wheel once in awhile. People get too deep into this stuff sometimes. This reminds me of the guy on U-tube with the expensive motorcycle boots throwing them in the trash after a month because he dragged his feet and blaming it on the brand name. Maybe I can find it.

 

In her first post she was concerned about parking on a boat ramp, so after spending my life at the Jersey Shore and watching more then a few boat towing vehicles being removed from submarine service during this time I do place concern for her situation more then throwing a cheap set of shoes on her vehicle she takes pride in.

 

Sammie,

This will bore the other gentleman, but bear with me.

As with everything brakes, it depends ..... on the slope and weight you are trying to hold.

Did you ever have any parking issues before and how long were these rotors in use? Enough oxidation and use in the drum area will take the place of the grit blasting.

The Drum In Hat parking brake on this and many other vehicles are quite small in relation to normal drum brakes that would be "service" brakes. The older drum brakes on the F-250/350 platforms were in the 11" and 12" range, giants compared to these both in diameter and also in width. When you dealing with static friction (parking), surface area matters.

Plus you now have leverage issues. 35" tires have a 17.5" rolling radius. 11" brakes have a 5.5" swept radius. So the older service drum brake had a disadvantage of 3.19:1 against it. The DIH brake on our trucks has a diameter of 8.12” so a swept radius of 4.06”, a disadvantage of 4.31:1. That seesaw leverage change really makes the parking brake work hard to hold the vehicle. DIH brakes are an easy solution when the vehicle design is for rear disc brakes, but the guys who are in charge of getting the vehicle to hold on grade have their work cut out for them.

It didn’t matter what vehicle we were developing a DIH brake shoe lining for, Chrysler LH, MiniVan, Ford Explorer, F-150, Superduty, F4450/550, Ford pass car and others, the DIH parking was a PITA to get to pass. Small diameter, small surface area.

The criticality is in the grind radius of the shoes for proper contact, the compliance of the friction material (soft enough for better contact but not soft enough to have a long pedal / handle travel) and the amount of running clearance to the drum (again pedal / handle travel). The opposing surface (drum) also matters.

The problem in the aftermarket is there are no standards for brake pads and shoes for compliance. If the vehicle had brake material with a .4 cof, you could sell materials with .2 cof and it’s legal. And unfortunately our friend has it right when it comes to these shoes with aftermarket sales …. "They are rarely used and all they do is hold your wheel once in awhile." Kind of does unless you want to go fishing ….. for an Excursion.

When we were gearing up to supply the Motorcraft DIH shoes we also testing the aftermarket competition. Apparently they never bothered to see if their lining met the OE criteria and we could not get they to hold properly. What we supplied for the Motorcraft line did (per Ford’s requirements), although on my own vehicle I would still put on the OE “Genuine” Ford parts if they are still available. As with many things aftermarket, the competition shoes were not ground to the tight spec that the OE parts were and they were using a generic shoe material, not as compliant as was needed.

I mentioned clearance and compliance earlier referring to pedal or handle travel. The reason for this is with our pedal applied trucks once full parking engagement goes past the 90° point of foot apply, some of the force you are pushing with your foot is then actually trying to move the entire pedal assembly towards the floor rather then rotating the pedal/reel assembly. The deeper you get the less force is going to tensioning the cable. So there is a sweet spot to maximize the cable tension vs foot pressure. Getting deep in the pedal is not getting you much more brake shoe application pressure.

So I’ve just given you the Cliff Notes of Parking Brake 101 as I think you take as much pride in your Vehicle as I do mine based on the threads of yours. And I think you want to keep your floor mats from getting wet.

I would stay with Ford Motorcraft or “Genuine” parking brake shoes. You’ve spent good money on those rear rotors so I would not be flipping them out quickly … see what the drum area looks like. Here is a picture of the rotor DIH surface that I have in one of my Facebook Photo pictorials to show you the grit blasted surface on the OE rotors that many do not know exists. I’m not even sure that the Motorcraft rotors has it! If someone had brand new rotors anyone who does sandblasting could achieve the same finish in about 5 minutes.

 

Christina; As I said before the brakes that are inside the drum (because they went to disc brakes) have about half the holding power of the older full drum e-brakes and the only thing you can do to improve on them is to sandblast or roughen up the drum surface to improve the friction coefficient but it won't last long as the shoes will smooth it out sooner or later and I doubt if the friction varies between brands of shoes (which is why I said get cheap ones) which often have the best friction because they are not trying to last 200k miles. In other words there is nothing you can do except keep oil off of them and push on the brake pedal hard (if you must use them). For loading boats you will have to depend on your engine, disc brakes, park, and drivetrain 100%. I assume that if you were backing a boat down a ramp and you lost power to the engine and disc brakes the e-brake would do almost nothing no matter what you did to improve on them.

When they went from drum brakes to disc brakes or the rear they compromised the holding power by about 50%+-. They either couldn't figure out how to use the calipers to hold the drum or they wanted to save some money by sticking some little shoes inside the drum but either way it doesn't work well with heavy vehicles that depend on their e-brakes. Years ago you could hit the e-brakes and lock up the rear wheels but not any more. (We used to do it when I was a kid to scare people...........lol).

 

Thank you for the parking brake shoe 101 information. I love understanding the how and why things work and appreciate you taking the time to write that up

Yes I mentioned the boat loading in Canada this summer as the reason I was gong to change them, because when I am up there I often have to park the truck on inclines with a trailer attached and if anything did ever happen I don't want an insurance company to avoid a claim because my brake shoes were shot. But you are correct in that the Ebrake isn't really used in the loading or unloading process, well unless you are a real idiot. I have seen people lose their boats/trucks that way, and I guess it's an extra measure to have and I knew they were shot.

These boats ramps are not your "normal ramps" one of them has a built in winch/come along system, that hooks to the front of the trucks. So at this one I will be using my front tow hooks my drivetrain, transmission and engine power. People use the winch more for getting in than getting out, not sure I understand the engineering behind it but has to do with the transmission and backing up very heavy loads. I know my dad blew up the tranny in an Econoline van years ago, while backing one of our big boats around a marina trying to get it positioned properly. I was there when he dropped that transmission later and the insides were shrapnel.

All that said I needed new Ebrake shoes, I will never use them but a few weeks a year and even at the other ramps up there that don't have winches if I started to slide with a 20+ foot boat behind me no Ebrake is going to keep me out of the water. So it was more for parking the truck at the marina's than the actual loading. When we do the "bigger boats" we always use the winched ramp anyway.

 

Thanks for the extensive write-up