rconkin

My son drove my truck tonight and said that he heard a pop as he walked away. I checked and when engaging the park brake, it was just too easy to push. I looked under the truck and could pull the cable going to the driver's side wheel. There was no resistance and I had to push it back. Any ideas? Could the end of the cable broken off or a spring broke in the wheel? Will it be safe to drive to work and back tomorrow or should I stay home and remove the drum to see exactly what is wrong? How hard is it to remove the rear drum? This is the first 3/4 ton truck I have owned. I always did my own work on my 1/2 ton trucks before. Would the drum removal be basically the same except bigger?

infidel

As long as your regular brakes are working it should be safe to drive.

Sometimes the drums are rusted on and can be very difficult to get off.
What works best for me is to jack and support both rears off the ground, remove tires, put one lug nut back on loosely, start the engine, put it gear and slam on the brakes in both forward and reverse. You can't miss the sound when they pop loose.

1-2-3

Sounds like he might have done a parking brake power slide. Those are always fun. If I busted my dad's truck in a power slide, I would have told him it happend on it's own after I walked away.

dj_souvlaki

they can snap at any time.

if the drums are rusted on just use a hammer. it'll break the rust loose.

rconkin

Well after dreading removing the drum, it came right off without any problems. I just grabbed it with both hands and it slid right off. I've never had one come off that easy. Of course no one in town stocked the park brake cable and I had to order it. The end of the cable had broken.

RATTLINRAM

Sounds like an easy fix and it's probably not unusual for a manual truck where the parking brake gets used more often. Glad you found your problem. One thing I would suggest when the part comes in, would be to adjust the shoes manually on both rear wheels as the automatic adjusters don't seem to do a very good job of it. I do this when rotating tires and I can always get a few clicks on them. The brakes always feel a lot better afterwards.

*Since this is no longer an Emergency topic, I'm moving this into the 2nd Gen forum.