More parking brake fun
I also replaced the shoes last year....
So I need an inspection soon and proceed to test the parking brake like they would at the station. I wrote in the last post that the cable would behave strangely if released suddenly vs slowly. I've been using the brake all year but it was never tested under acceleration. It was barely passable under mild acceleration, so I cranked the left adjuster a bit and it seemed to hold well. Took a drive around, and tested the parking brake again and to find it is completely gone
. Nothing. I even maxed out the adjuster and still no brakes.
Before pulling the rotors, I looked at the actuators and the right one was stuck in the middle. I needed a screwdriver to set it back in position.
Now the rotors come off(nice and easy thanks to anti-seize!). The right shoes are pretty much completely gone. The cable stuck and held the shoes against the rotors. I wasn't able to rotate the tires by hand and had to turn the adjuster to get the rotor off. The left shoes were still hot because of that final adjustment, which was compensating for a malfunctioning right parking brake.
Failure mode (Keep this in mind when you install your new right cables):
The cable chafed against the leaf spring, exposing the inner metal tubing. The internal sheath corroded and pretty much locked the cable. All the stock fasteners were intact, but allowing contact with the leaf spring. Be sure to protect this area when you install the cable. The left cable is intact, smooth, and I see no reason to change it.
The after market right cables also gave me issues. The Ford cable is $57 online, I would rather not spend that because I had to replace the shoes. (The left Ford cable is $20 and with shipping the same price at a local dealer. I would strongly suggest the Ford left cable if you need to replace it.)
The cable from Advance is made by Tru-Torque (aka Dorman) in China, and has an exposed stranded metal cable (the stock has a plastic coating on the internal cable). Otherwise the cable looks like quality. That cable is probably OK in Arizona, but would probably rust in a few months here. It is a $45 unit that can be PMed to the Napa $20 one.
The NAPA unit is ~$20, and I believe is made in the USA by Raybestos. It has a plastic sheath but required a bit of fabrication with a dremel for the hook to fit in the eyelet. Seems they left a spur or made it a mm too narrow. Also, the clip that holds it on the backing plate looked a bit flimsy to me since the stock one had a collar that prevents it from slipping off. On further inspection though there are internal spurs that bite into the unit as its inserted into the retainer. I will verify that this can retain the spring tension needed to release the parking brake. The napa unit has sliding sections of tube along the cable. These are perfect to protect the cable from interference with the leaf spring.
