Frozen ebrake?

[Darrman]

Ok, it has gotten pretty cold here the last couple days, freezing everything.
Two days ago it was freezing rain, which was blown onto my passenger side all night. In the morning the tires and rim on that side were coated in ice.
I waited till later in the day when everything was pretty well thawed, and then attempted to go to the store.
I release the ebrake, sounds normal and put it in gear and the passenger rear wheel is frozen. I rock it back and forth and apply and release the ebrake a few time, finally it pops and I am good to go.
Ok, so this moring I am going to work, same thing, rock it and it pops. However when I get to work and go to set the ebrake all the tension is gone, pedal goes to the floor without resistance, and when I get out, I can smell fried brake shoe.
So I have a still sticking ebrake, no tension at the pedal, any ideas what happenened? My regular brakes still seem to be fine, no problem with them.
I dread pulling the wheel and drum tonite, its COLD! But I guess I will have to.

 

[Darrman]

Well, I went ahead and fixed the problem, turns out two things happened. First the ebrake c-clip fell off, allowing the pivot bracket to fall off.
Second the damn primary shoe fell apart, big chunk was broke off. Dont know why this happened, these were only 6 months old.
Luckily I have the warranty, so got a new set and changed em out, everything is back to normal.

 

[marragtop]

Don't use the ebrake in freezing rain.....

 

[Tony H]

That's a rule I have and drilled into my wife's brain. When wet and slushy with below freezing Temps. Don't use the E-brake. OR when you wash your car in below freezing temps. It wasn't your issue BUT water can drive into the cables then freeze with the E-brake 'ON'.
It happened to me once and other friends too.