Parking Brake Problem on 97 Ranger

[mallard39]

The pedal mechanism depresses through entire range but only starts to tension cable at very end. Not enough to engage brakes. The ratchet mechanism seems to work. It was working fine and stopped working suddenly. The cable below seems intack and I can get brakes to start to engage by manually pulling cable. Almost as if cable came off a cam on pedal assembly. Or if there is some assembly in cable that came loose and lost 3" - 4" of pull. Not sure how to remove pedal assembly. I can see three (3) hex head fasteners to side wall. Could be more. My manual does not have any info on it.

Any ideas or info would be appreciated.

 

[Tbars4]

...I just looked to see if I had a picture and I don't...

...The cable comes in on the drivers side, rear drum...It goes around a pin with a cable guide, holding the rear shoe in place, and the cable has an eyelet on the end and it goes over and ends on another pin...

..It is very possible that the cable jumped track inside the rear drum...You would need to pull the wheel and drum to see and fix this...

 

[Tbars4]

...I found a pic online..

...Look at the end of the arrow on the letter "A" on the Rightside...Follow the cable from that point down to the right...You can see the little cable guide and this is where I mentioned it probably jumped off track..I hope this helps..

 

[gijoecam]

First question: Do you have rear drums, or rear discs? (Drums I would think??)

 

[mallard39]

I'll pull the drums to look. But the cam I thought might exist is in the pedal assembly. When I watch the assembly work it doesn't pull the cable end until the very end of the stroke.