I have been having trouble with the e-brake for quite some time (10.25 Sterling axle), and I recently discovered the reason why.

There is a metal tab/pin that the parking brake lever moves (circled in green in the photo), and it fits in a groove in between the metal of the two shoe webs. When the brake is engaged, it slides right on top of the metal tab (circled in red) instead of pushing against it to spread the shoes. This is why the e-brake isn't engaging.

Since I took the photo, I replaced the shoes with brand new Motorcraft shoes. The same issue began happening. This tells me that the shoes aren't the problem. Is this a problem that anyone else here has experienced and how was it resolved?

 

Just found this thread, having the same problems, any luck figuring it out?

 

Just weld up the edge of the shoe and grind it square. Looks like the shoe is broken or worn off. maybe tap the "green" tap down a little. So it doesn't ride over the shoe.

 

 

This may seem off the wall, but the parking brake lever arm has no support at the bottom and the pivot point is close to the top, and not very sturdy. Is it a possibility that the arm is being tweaked over by the parking brake cable causing the tab on the spreader bar to lift up and glide over the top rather than actuate the shoe?

 

What I ended up doing was just just heating up that tab with a torch and bent down far enough that it would engage the shoe. It has worked fine ever since.

 

Part 2A142 or 2A462 rotates when part 2a631 or 2a838 is pulled by the emergency brake cable. But instead of pushing the shoes outward into the drum they "skip" over top of the shoe, hence the ground down area on the edge of the brake shoe. That's why it's not engaging the parking brake, because it's taking the path of least resistance. Someone else on here had a similar issue and seemed to solve it by bending down the ears on 2a142 or 2a462 to engage the pad and not allow it to ride over the top only the brake shoe edge.

 

Thanks! I just wanted to make sure that doesn't throw off the geometry at all, will be doing exactly what you did, I appreciate it!