How can I make my parking brake sharp enough to hold the truck and an 18ft boat on the boat ramp? (I want it to be the type that basically locks up regardless of how much force is on the wheels)

89 f150 straight6 5spd

Already replaced the cables that branch out into the hubs, and the main cable that comes off of the pedal.

As hard as I can push down the parking brake pedal, it will hold the truck on a pretty reasonable slope, but not a super steep slope, and nowhere even close to strong enough to hold the truck in place on the boat ramp with an 18 ft boat on a trailer.

I removed the hubs and inspected the drums which appear to be in good condition, as do the brake shoes with about 2/3 life left, albeit their just basic steel shoes. I wiped the dust out of the drums, which helped somewhat.

Considering that I've already replaced all the cables, and I'm already putting a pretty large amount of force on the parking brake pedal, and I plan to remove the drums again and have them turned, how else can I make my parking brake "lock-up" tight?

Ceramic brake shoes? "Heavy Duty" (as Napa calls them) brake shoes?

Like I said, I want it to be the type of parking brake that locks up the wheels instantly regardless of how much force is on them.

 

uhm.... if u have new cables and the brakes are adjusted and the cable is adjusted right it should lock up....

my parking break locks up near the top.... and at that point its so tight u can stand on it

 

if your trusting that much weight to brakes, especially when you have it pointed down into the water i would recommend a line lock to the front brakes.....cables can stretch over time, and besides, go ahead and use the e-brake and the line lock, and now you have the holding power of all 4 tires.....the two front ones being high and dry


many of my boating friends prefer 4x4 as well, that way you always two drive tires that are high and dry as well

 

if your talking about holding it from rolling back-good luck -I have never had one hold from going backwards with a load on it

 

o.o yea now that u mention it they dont hold it from going backwards very well....

due to the way that they are engaged

 

As far as the parking brake holding a vehicle from going backwards goes, none of the cars and trucks we have had did that very well.

 

Are you 4wd? BW1356?

If so, you could get a bronco tail-housing for the transfer case and run a driveline brake.



The braking force is multiplied through your diff gears, locks all 4 in 4wd, and in 4lo your front tires will have double the braking power as the rear.

Will have to run a different driveshaft as well though, with the integrated slip.

 

Mine gets super tight too...but it still rolls forward on a steep hill. Ceramic pads maybe?

It sounds like that might be what I end up doing. Do you recomend electric solenoid vs manual valve? Or does it make a difference? Could I put one on the front AND the back?

It doesn't even hold it from going forward that well, not if its a steep incline.

Its just a regular baseline rwd truck. I'm guessing its a huge amount of work to install a drive-line brake from a bronco then? Do they make aftermarket drive-line brakes that can be installed in a couple hours?

 

Wheel chocks? Just askin'.

 

By design, drum brakes work much better going forward than going backward. You might try swapping the front and back shoes, so that the long shoe is on the front, this will help some, but may not fix it altogether. This will cost you braking power when driving (and trying to stop that big boat) but the back brakes don't do that much work anyway, so it may not matter, especially if your boat has trailer brakes.

 

Don't ever do this. It will cause problems if you do.

 

Like what, besides reduced braking power going forward, which I already mentioned? If you are worried about that, you could buy 2 sets of shoes and just use the long ones.

 

If it doesn't matter which way they go on, then why are the shoes different size? And why does every manual in existence say to make sure the larger shoe goes in the back?

The brakes won't work correctly if the shoes are on backwards. This should be obvious.

 

I didn't say it doesn't make any difference, but your dire warning of "don't ever do this" without anything to back it up besides "well Ford made it this way so you better not mess with it" is not very helpful. Allow me to explain:

Drum brakes are self-energizing, in that the movement of the drum causes one shoe, called the leading shoe, to dig in more as friction increases. This has the opposite effect on the other shoe, called the trailing shoe, it is actually being unloaded due to this effect. When travelling forward, the leading shoe is the rear shoe, which is why it has more brake material. The rear shoe is going to experience more heat and wear over time because it does more of the braking work, so it has more material to give it more braking power and longevity. The front shoe does less work since so much less stopping is done in reverse, and generally at lower speeds, so it has less material to save on costs.

If he would swap the shoes, this would give the front shoe, which is the leading shoe when going in reverse, more braking power. Like I said, this will reduce braking power going forward, but the rear brakes do so little on these trucks, it may not make much difference. He will likely experience faster wear on the shorter shoe this way, but again, the rear brakes do so little work here, it may not be much of an issue.

He could also do a rear brake job with new shoes, buy 2 sets, and put the rear (longer) shoe on both front and back, but I would swap the shoes first to see if it helps his emergency brake or not before I spent that money. It's something easy he could try, it may or may not help, but it's free and it's not going to make him spin out and crash into a ditch or anything.

 

I recall a few people complain of rear brakes dragging after replacing shoes and come to find out that they threw them on backwards. That may be something to look into before you go for it. Worst case scenario, you do it and it doesn't work.