I know this has been discussed many many times.....but i tried to do a search and the site wouldn't let me complete it.
Could someone please tell me if there is a tried and true fix to make these parking brakes hold just a little?
Winter coming and with a six speed would like some resemblence of a brake....short of a brick in the drive.
Anything i can do to make it better would be of great help.
I have adjusted.....no help.
New cables ( thinking maybe stretched)..no help.
Shoes are new.
Did notice levers where cable attach look to be worbled out.....gonna try to tighten that are up a little to see if that helps but.....
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill

 

Good info here

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ve-up-now.html

 

I am in the process right now of adjusting and refreshing my parking brake. I just put on new rotors and pads in the rear. Took the opportunity to inspect the springs and levers for the parking brake. Luckily my truck spent the first 228,000 miles of its life in the south before I bought it and the parts are in great shape.

I have taken the time to verify that rotating the star up loosens the parking brake shoes on both sides. This will be the biggest factor I think in fine tuning them. I also used about a gallon of brake cleaner and now the parts look new, well almost.

I believe that with scrubbing and cleaning the pads very well and the new rotors and the upcoming fine tuning that the parking brake will work as intended. Time will tell though as I have shifted to my Saturday project of installing Brazilian Teak hardwood flooring in the house...

I do plan to post the results when I get the brake working correctly.

EDIT: Buried in the link posted above by Jason is some info on the AFCO brake lock - https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/139790

 

Direct link to my AFCO install:

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

It is SO nice to throw that switch, NOT have the truck roll PERIOD.

 

Ok....since my last post, I replaced parking brake hardware on both sides, as well as cleanes and lubed.
Now, instead of having a pedal that goes to the floor with no brake......I have a pedal that i can barely get to travel 1/4 and still only have a very weak parking brake
The cleaning and new hardware seemed to have helped but not nearly what i anticipated.
I'm having trouble understanding why i went from being able to push the pedal to the floor... to a pedal that i can hardly move?
Seems that if I can hardly depress the pedal, that is being limited by the shoes on the drum, and if that is the case, why no brake?

 

Maybe you could mount an anchor with some form of quick release. Let me know which anchor works best.

 

I replied to this thread earlier and have completed the maintenance that I was going to do and am very happy with the results. I replaced the rotors and caliper pads, not the parking brake pads. I cleaned the heck out of the parking brake hardware, lubed it and then calibrated them properly.

I also had to shorten the intermediate cable by about 1/2 an inch in order to keep the pedal from going to the floor. While shortening the cable, if I pulled on the side that went to the pedal it would "lock" or "jam" the pedal in the upward most position and I would have to mess with it to get it to move at all. By mess with it, I was using my left hand and pressing on the pedal while using my right hand to pull on the brake release lever.

I found that if I shortened the intermediate cable by more than 1/2" the pedal would go into this locking state most of the time when releasing the brake. With the 1/2" shorten the pedal is tight and goes about 1/2 way to the floor.

As for the brake performance, it is a lot better than what it was but I tested in several situations. On an incline of about 35 degrees it will not hold, but anything short of that it does hold. So, I have decided that I will continue to use chocks and the transmission in addition to the parking brake.

Hope this helps.

 

I am guessing the new parts suck, I've seen various diagrams and references to how not all brake parts are equal and many after market ones are crap.

I have one wheel that if I click the star wheel one more time, the wheel is LOCKED SOLID with out applying the parking brake....no way you can turn it by hand. Apply the brake and park the truck? That brake does NOT hold that wheel...