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About 4 years ago the person welding in new floor plans to my 76 F250 accidentally cut through the parking brake cable. At the time, I was only able to find NOS and I couldn't afford it, but leaving the truck in 1st worked. Given that I only drive my truck ~1000 miles a year, I never really bothered to get the new one.
Fast forward to this last weekend, and my truck popped out of gear with a load of gravel in the back and rolled down a hill. Fortunately nobody was hurt and there wasn't really any damage done, except to the retaining wall it plowed through. It could have gone a lot worse, given that the whole yard is a hill and the truck could have easily rolled all the way down. Needless to say, this finally motivated my *** to buy a new cable.
I ended up finding a replacement cable made by Dorman, and I got it in without too many problems. Issue now is, I've run out of thread for adjustment. The pedal goes all the way to the floor, and it is enough to stop the truck rolling on flat ground, but won't hold it on a hill. Where else can I make adjustments in the system?
Sounds like the new cable is to long. By chance did you still have the old cable to measure against? When I was looking for new cables for my 78, I found out their were a lot of different cable lengths.
Sounds like the new cable is to long. By chance did you still have the old cable to measure against? When I was looking for new cables for my 78, I found out their were a lot of different cable lengths.
According to the research I had done a few years back when I first looked, I got the exact ford # from someone on the site for my truck setup. Dorman lists the cable I bought as the exact unit. All the wire clips and the crossmember clips matched up correctly.
Do remember about how long the cable was supposed to be? One of the reasons I did not go with Dorman, they did not give all the measurements. That is cable length and housing length. Also price. I also had my old cables which helped a lot.
They used make a clamp type thing that you could put on your cable that would shorten the cable some. I don't remember exactly what it was called.
you need to make sure your rear brakes are adjusted correctly and the primary and secondary shoe are in the correct locations. the automatic adjusters work then backing up OR when the parking brake is applied/release...so there is a chance the shoes need adjusted since you have been missing one of the ways they adjust.
OK, I checked the Dorman link. It does not say 2WD or 4WD. I believe there is a difference. My 78 2WD long bed requires a cable 108" long. To boot you have a 4WD. I'm sure there is a difference. Do you have a Ford shop manual? .That's what I used to make sure I got the right cables.
I recently adjusted my parking brake. My issue was the adjuster rod had some ground down threads and I didn't want to risk breaking the rod trying to force the nut cutting new threads. So here is my redneck fix, I used a brass fitting to get the nut back to the good thread section:
I recently adjusted my parking brake. My issue was the adjuster rod had some ground down threads and I didn't want to risk breaking the rod trying to force the nut cutting new threads. So here is my redneck fix, I used a brass fitting to get the nut back to the good thread section:
Not sure if this would help your situation.
Mike
I considered doing something like this, since I don't have a die hanging around to cut more threads. Seems a little iffy so I wanted to see if there was another option first.
ND, thanks for throwing that up. It looks like I got the correct P/N, because I was after the upper parking brake cable (pedal to splitter) for a 76 F250 4WD.
Well I'm glad I tore into the brakes, turns out the cable inside the drum came unhooked from the parking brake lever on the passenger side, which makes sense because whenever I applied the brake I noticed the balance bar would be tilted towards the drivers side (indicating the passenger side was loose)
While I was in there though, I noticed the brakes on the pass side didn't look like they're in too hot of shape. I did the whole rear end brakes probably 2000 miles ago, but I noticed weird wear patterns in the drum and shoe.
Any ideas to what might be causing this on a single side??
No worries on getting new cables, I ordered all 3 last year based on my OEM measurements, I have the same truck, 76' f250 ..... they were a perfect fit... Hope you still have the spring and adjuster bar, those can be a bear to find... I ended up using a spring for a mustang ... heres the cable i ordered..
DORMAN C95143 x2 right and left
DORMAN C93138 main front cable that goes into cab ...
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... heres the cable i ordered..