Parking Brake only works in reverse | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Parking Brake only works in reverse

thrlofthehunt

New Member
Joined
December 23, 2006
Messages
4
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City, State
Waverly, Minnnesota
Year, Model & Trim Level
96 sport
I have a 96 sport 4x4 with a 5 speed. When I bought it the parking brakes did not work. With the all the help on this forum I replaced the completly shot parking brake shoes inside the disk brakes.

When I tried out the Parking brakes they did not seem to work at all. So I adjusted the star wheel and got it so the parking brakes work real well in reverse but not at all when going forward. If I tighten the brakes any further they engage (in reverse) when the parking brake pedal is fully released.

The parking brake shoes I got from the auto parts store, all 4 shoes were exactly the same size with the same pad surface. Are the shoes suposed to have a longer pad on one side like most drum shoes I have seen?

When I lift the back up and turn them by hand, both sides do the same thing, almost no resistance in forward with the brake on, but in reverse they completly lock up the tire like they should.

Right now the only thing I can think of is replacing the drum, but I have a feeling they are not going to be cheap, becuse they have the disk surface and the drum surface on the inside.

Does any one have any ideas, or have had the same problem. I guess having the parking brake work in reverse is better than not having any.

Thanks
 



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the pivot actuating lever spreads your shoes to open up "equally" on both side and shouldn't be impacted by your wheel direction. It sounds like one of the anchor pins that holds the shoes on both side is broken bent or otherwise not keeping the brakes shoes position properly. The other things to check is to make sure that when the pivot lever actuates that it indeed spreads both shoes. This can be checked with the wheel off and a helper pressing on the brake lever in the cab.
 






Thanks,

Now that you mention it one of the spring pins was bent, and I did not dare straighten it in fear of breaking it. I did not think it would make that much of a difference. I will see if I can find a hardware kit somewhere.
 






Again make sure, with your wheel drum off that both shoes move "freely" when the brake level is depressed. If they aren't, then you need to clean and otherwise. My brakes on my 96 were totally "frozen" when I got it used in 2005. It took a lot of cleaning and scraping to ensure that everything worked as it should... very frustrating and time consuming but eventually they functioned as they should which was good since I couldn't pass my saftey without them. good luck
 






MitchHeadberg said:
I dont know why they call it an emergency brake. They should call it thing that gives you bad gas millage and smells funny after you drive it for a wile "

:D
 






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