How do you adjust the parking brake on an 04? My pedal goes all the way to the floor with little tension. There is no adjustment at the cables under the drivers side door, and I can't see any rubber plug to manually adjust at the rotors. Thanks in advance

 

There is a star wheel inside the rear brakes. You turn this wheel just like when adjusting drum brakes.

 

Thanks I was afraid of that. Can I do this with the wheels on from the back, or do I need to pull the rotor/drum and adjust like that?

 

You do it with the wheels on and off the ground, tranny in neutral, just like drum brakes. There is a slot in the backing plate where you can insert a brake spoon or a screwdriver to turn the star wheel.

 

Do you have any tension in the cable at all? Check and make sure the cable didn't break from corrosion. My driver side cable rusted at the end where it attached to the actuator lever behind the brake drum backing plate, apparently this is common. I replaced both cables, emergency brake shoes and mechanical parts, adjusted both and they are fine now.

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but mine needs adjustment, too...

I took a quick look at the back of the wheel assembly but did not see the slot. Is it somewhere near where the cable attaches to the assembly? Or somewhere else...? A picture would actually be great, if possible...

I did not raise the truck yet, so I didn't get to see everything, but just wanted to see if somebody could point me in the right direction before doing that.

I replaced rear pads and rotors a few weeks ago and now the emergency brake does not hold as it should even when the pedal is on all the way on the floor.

Thanks!

 

Okay guys...

Here are a couple of pictures from the backside of the rear wheel. Could somebody point me to the right direction as to where I can find the adjustment wheel?

I have done a brake job or two in my life and seen and used the star wheel to adjust rear shoes, but this time for the life of me, I can not figure out where that might be in this one.

Please help. Somebody must have needed to adjust theirs, too, I hope...

I really need to get this thing inspected... Thanks!

 

Here is a picture of a spare backing plate I had kicking around. The slot in question is within the red circle. The plate is in the correct position as it would mount to the axle, with the slot on the bottom.

 

Thanks, alloro!

If I figured it out correctly, it is somewhere behind the control arm...?

 

On the pics you have where you can see the ebrake tensioning spring, even though mine looked like that (tensioned and connected), at the part where the spring meets the end of the cable sleeve I found the cable broken off internally. It gives the appearance of being in tension when it is possible that the cable is corroded and broken. At the other end of the spring in the picture, mine attached to the ebrake actuator lever just like yours, but I found that lever to be completely corroded and frozen stuck (ie. breaking the cable). Once I replaced the cable and adjusted the newly installed ebrakes (with new actuator lever) then the pedal quit going to the ground with no tension. It can't hurt to pull back a little bit on that lever and the spring at either side to ensure your cable ain't broke. BTW, to adjust the ebrakes, I lifted the rear axle on two jack stands at either end of the axle so that both wheels could rotate free; as you adjust the star nut on each side you will feel the brakes just barely 'catch' when you rotate the wheels, back off the adjustment a couple of notches to get it completely freely rotating from there and it should be good, it worked fine for me. My ebrake is tight now when it needs to be. If you ever do install a new cable, it's a good idea to lift the truck and readjust/check the adjustment after about one month of use. Hope that helps.

 

Well that's a dumb design change! Maybe you'll have to pull off your rotors and adjust the star wheel that way. Keep tightening it a bit more until the rotor just fits over the shoes. Unless your's has the adjusting slot in the face of the rotor instead of in the backing plate?

 

I also need to adjust the parkingbrake on my 2004 Expedition.

I raised the car and found the rubber grommet that covers the slot. Managed to prise it of with a long screwdriver, but it is nearly impossible to adjust something there. The slot is hidden behind some big arm

Seems like it is needed to remove the rotors.......

 

Yup. Need to remove the wheel, caliper and rotor to adjust it. Just did it earlier today. That is just complete and utter BS!!! Or maybe you can do it if you have some kind of special Ford tool. Didn't work with my normal hand tools.

The hole is behind the end of the control arm I circled in the picture above.

Kind of hard to figure out the correct adjustment when you have everything off, but at least mine is much better now. Let's see what Mr. State Inspector agrees with me tomorrow.

 

I was just looking over the picture of your backing plate and notice the cutaway spot at the bottom, circled in red. Is this possibly an access spot to the star wheel for adjustment? From the picture, I can't tell how much clearance there is from the rotor to the plate.

 

How many RPMs is the parking brake holding to?