Hey guys, so I have the manual 5 speed and my parking brake is not working, before I changed the front and intermediate parking brake cables I would have to push the pedal all the way to the floor and it still would not hold the truck. I am on a budget so I replaced the front and intermediate parking brake cables to see if that would fix the situation.
However after the install it was really hard to attach the intermediate cable to the front cable and when I finally did get it by parking brake pedal went down about 2 inches and the parking brake still did not grab. It is winter here in NY and cold as hell so I did not want to have to tear into the drum brakes. After reviewing other threads here a lot of people claim that the drum brakes are to blame. I have never worked on drum brakes before(only disk) and I am nervous about opening them up in the cold as this truck is my daily driver. So 1.) I am having a very hard time finding a seller that clearly sells an intermediate brake cable for a 1997 F-250HD with supercab and 8ft bed. So if anyone has a link to one please send it my way as I think the one I ordered was too short or something. 2) What else could the problem be with this brake system. I am guessing it is original cables but most likely not original brake parts(hopefully) as this car is 20 years old now and has 144,000 miles on it. Any help and tips would be appreciated. I can not pass inspection without a working parking brake!

 

Pull the drums and take a look... do NOT be shocked if you find comedy within. Mine had one broken auto adjuster and the other hanging 10. Two primary shoes on one side and two secondary on the other. Whomever 'repaired' the rear should not touch another vehicle again.

If yours are all correct inside, you need to go fairly quick in reverse and hit the brakes hard. This will make the lever turn the auto adjuster. You may need to do this a few times.

I fully rebuilt my rears with all new stuff...drums, Porterfield shoes, hardware, cyls, etc. Even took a few reverse romps to make the drums grab correctly. Now my stuff works great.

 

Did you reset the adjuster on the pedal?

 

Update:

Yesterday I took the old front parking brake cable and intermediate parking brake cable into the workshop. There is a metal bracket that allows the front cable to attach to the intermediate cable, it is located along the frame under the driver side seat. It allows the barrel end of the cable to slip into a wider diameter spot which then tapers down into a smaller diameter securing each end of the cable in the bracket. The after market cable I purchased from parts geek was the right length, however the metal bracket that came with it was awful, it was shorter and weaker then the OEM bracket. If anyone is changing the parking brake cables I highly recommend saving the OEM bracket as from what I saw the intermediate cable bracket has been discontinued by Ford.

I was able to install the new brake cables and then pushed the parking brake pedal down multiple times to adjust the cables. I also threw it in reverse and braked as Hit Man suggested. After all that when parked on a hill with the parking brake engaged, it still rolls back still but slower then before, so the parking brake is partially engaged and the pads are not fully grabbing.

The only way to adjust the drum pads is from the rear with the gear adjuster slot at the base of the drums. Does anyone know which way expands the drum pads? I am going to jack her up and see whats going on in there and report back.

Best,
Zach

 

Up on the passenger side and down on the drivers side is what I remember.

 

If all is correct inside there, the auto adjusters work fine. I will see if I have a pic after I built mine. They are basically identical, yet mine are bigger as DRW.

 

 

The parking brake doesn't hold well in reverse. Does it keep the truck from rolling forward on a downward slope?

 

I have yet to try that. I am always facing upward on a slope, never nose down.

 

How does that work? Is that like having to trudge uphill both ways to school and back?.....

(Or like the Escher drawing of the four stairways all leading up?)

 

All the places I usually park on a slope are on the right side of the street so I am always facing up the hill.

 

Yeah, I figured. I was just being a wise-@$$....

 

I see what you did.