When I bought my truck, the parking brake cables were severed. They're totally gone now. I bought a set of replacement cables. I wonder if someone would please either take pictures of the way that the parking brake cables are routed, especially everything rear of the equalizer, or help me to find a diagram of the way that they're routed. I am not sure what should be there as far as keepers, retainers, or guides. I have seen a couple of videos on YouTube showing the process of replacing the cables, but none that I found devoted any time to explaining how they are routed. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time!

 

H






ere why I have under mine

 

That's exactly what I needed. Thanks!

 

I was looking around at some old threads for diagrams and such and found this thread.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ing-brake.html

 

This guy's video is pretty good at showing everything and all of the rough details. I've found that a lot of videos and instructions sort of gloss over a lot of details that are pretty important. This guy's video shows most everything on the passenger rear brake cable.

 

Here are a couple of observations/comments that I have to offer so far in case someone in the future is reading this about to embark upon the journey of replacing or repairing their parking brake cables. My advice is to make sure that you have replacements for all of the springs, cables, and doodads in each drum brake before you get into this. If you're like me, then you are hoping that this is going to be an easy thing where you slap on the new cables, high-five your neighbor, and go on about life. That may happen for you, and I hope that it does. However, if you're like me, then that won't happen for you. Instead, you're going to pull off your brake drum and pieces are going to fall out with it. So you're going to have to make a desperate run to a parts store in an alternate vehicle and buy replacements for the broken parts that fell out with the drum. Then, when you pull off the brake drum on the other side, another piece will fall out with the drum, only replacements for this broken piece aren't in the kit that you just bought. This, of course, will lead to another desperate run to a parts store for another parts kit in the aforementioned alternate vehicle. Also, if your area is like my area, then parts stores just love to not have these parts in stock, even if their online inventory says that they do. So, again, my advice is to have all of the parts that you might need ahead of time and be prepared to do some extra repairs, because your brakes might be a wreck when you get in there.

TL;DR: Brakes are a mess on my rear axle even though I (thought I) had the shop that regeared my rear axle put all new brakes on the new axle while they had it, and I installed that axle fewer than 1000 miles ago. I spent all of the time I had to fix the parking brake on parts runs instead.

 

Does anybody have any tips for getting the intermediate cable connected to the equalizer? Everything is TIGHT. I made sure that the pedal is all of the way up and that the cables weren't bound in the brakes or anything. Everything looks correct. I tried hooking a ratchet strap onto the equalizer with both rear cables hooked into it, and then hooking the other end into a hole in the frame to pull on the rear brakes. I got so close, but just not close enough to reach before I couldn't really ratchet the cheap Harbor Freight ratchet strap to the next tooth.

What do you guys think? Just get a better ratchet strap or does anybody have any other tips or tricks? Is it possible that I'm doing it wrong or need an intermediate cable that is like 1" longer? Is there a "correct" way to do this that is somehow eluding me?

 

i pull on the cable and grab it with vice grips so it cant slip back in the sleeve, then connect and release the grips

 

Thank you, knottyrope. What a great suggestion! I think getting a good night's sleep rather than trying to do this at 11:30PM helped, too.

 

Does anybody have any suggestions for adjusting the rear brakes? I can't figure out how to do a really good job at it. I've never really messed with drum brakes until this. My attempt at adjusting them is a significant improvement for how everything was before I worked on it, though!

 

i dont like the ratchet hole thing but i do this when i do new shoes and drum has no lip

pull drum off half way to expose adjuster
rotate the lower sprocket adjuster until shoes hit drum
mount tires back on
back up 5-10 times to a complete stop
should be good after