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Got a real quick question to run by anyone that comes here. I have a 94 Ford Explorer XLT, and when I depress the parking brake sometimes it will make a rather loud clicking noise and seems to travel rather far toward the floor. Other ocasssions, however, it will lightly click a few times and lock in place, like every other parking brake I have ever depressed. If you have any ideas as to what could be wrong please let me know
Here's just a guess. The brakes have automatic adjusters which require a certain amount of wear before any adjustment takes place. So, as the brakes wear, the pedal can be pushed down farther until an adjustment takes place. After the adjustment, the pedal can't be pushed down as far. I don't know how much, if any, difference there would be in pedal height before and after an adjustment so this may not be what is occurring.
However, I haven't noticed any significant difference in the parking brake on my Ranger but then again, the back brakes have hardly worn (I only drive about 6k miles/yr). For peace of mind, I would pull the brake drum and see if there is anything obviously wrong. Also, check for binding in the parking brake system. Good luck.
There was a safety recall on that problem several years ago, but it only included vehicles with manual transmissions. If yours is manual and it hasn't already been done yet, get the recall done. They put some kind of wedge in the automatic adjuster for the parking brake because the teeth are slipping.
Don't forget though everytime you adjust your parking brake, the wedge has to come out first, adjusted, then re-installed. Quite a convenient design, I'd say.
If you got an automatic, you got to pay for the fix, which I believe is a new design adjuster. Cam-in-post type, I think.