So get this...

[dmasini]

I'm pulling out of my place to goto work this morning when my parking brake seizes up and locks my left rear tire up. Luckily I was only going about 10mph at the time. Like a dumb @ss I limp it on over to a dealership (it was the closest thing to me) and they want to charge me 409 bucks for new parking brake pads and labor. I asked the guy why labor was so much and he said they needed to take the "axle" off to fix it. Now I'm not a mechanic but I see no reason to take the axle off to fix this problem. Then I started thinking maybe he meant that they needed to take the cover of the differential under the rotor to fix it. Any truth to this?

It's really easy to change the brake pads and rotors on this thing but never wanted to mess with the springs involved on the parking brake. How bad do you guys think I'm getting raped by the price?

 

[Rick]

The parking brake is a drum brake within the disc brake rotor. I've never had to replace my pads, but I do know it's tight in there. I honesty don't know if you have to pull the shaft to service the pads. I'll be watching this thread

 

[Bill Kemp]

The Haynes manual has a very detailed description and good pics on how to change the parking brake shoes. Axel removal is NOT part of the process. You remove the caliper & disc and the pkng. brake is fully exposed.
Buy a manual & have a go at it. Doesnt look hard and no special tools needed.

 

[MyExpWork]

I agree I don't have rear rotors, but I do know that the parking brake is a drum within the disc. I don't see how removing the axle is a step in this process, but I could be wrong.

Brian

 

[dogfriend]

Ive changed mine. You do not have to remove the axle. It has been discussed here before:

rear brakes

more rear brakes

 

[dmasini]

Thanks for the posts guys. I went ahead and got them to do the work yesterday and it should be done today. Only because I would have ended up paying money for them just to look at it anyway.

When he calls me to tell me it's done I'm going to call him out on the axle comment to see what he says. I changed the rear brakes and rotors on this thing maybe about 4 months ago and saw the whole setup and it didn't look as if I had to do anything with the axle. But I wasn't sure so that's why I asked you guys.

I'll keep you informed as to what he said. And thanks again for the posts...

 

[dmasini]

Ok, so this is what the guy said. I still don't know if I believe him 100% but again, I've never changed the parking brake before (the Chilton manual says nothing about this by the way).

He said they had to take the rear differential cover off and take out 2 clips that held some cover one the left side of the axle (where the rotor attaches). Then take the 4 bolts off to fully get to the parking brake. I told him their was no instructions on that part in the Chiltons manual and he just kept side-stepping the question by saying that this parking brake is different from others because it uses the rotor as it's drum. Which is the only true part I felt came out of his mouth.

All-in-all still sounds fishy... what do you guys think?

 

[tenikiwon]

The book says that you need to take the axles out, but I've done it without having to. It's difficult to get in there, but if you've done it onces the job can be done in under a half hour.

 

[dogfriend]

All-in-all still sounds fishy... what do you guys think?

I think that he a) has never done it before, believes that he must pull the axle first or b) he is trying to charge extra (he's dishonest).

Either way, he's wrong, you don't have to pull the axle. I know this because I have replaced the shoes myself and did not have to pull the axle shaft to do it.

P.S. I have the exact same year of Explorer (97) as you do. I don't think that the design changed from year to year for the parking brake anyway.

 

[dmasini]

I'm hoping the mechanic will still be around when I go pick it up. I printed out a diagram of the rear-end and I want him to show me what he had to take off.

 

[dmasini]

tenikiwon, that I could see them doing if they had to take the brake assembly off the the rear axle. It looks like the axle shaft would be in the way of the 4 bolts to remove that assembly. But why they would need to completly remove the assembly from the truck is beyond me...

tenikiwon, off topic for a sec, what color is the interior of your X? I have one with the same color scheme as yours but I'm the only one I know who has a blue interior with the white/grey two tone.

 

[tenikiwon]

Interior is Gray leather

It makes the job a heck of a lot easier to take the axle shaft out, but isn't necessary by any means. They are probably just going by the book. Maybe you can call then and ask then to do it without taking out the axle.
I guess I don't fully understand what you're asking beyond that.

 

[IAmTodd]

When I first got my X, the parking brake froze up. Didn't lock the wheel, but took us a while to figure out wat was making the squeeking noise. It was under its 1 month warrenty from the Ford dealership(thank god). Replaced it all, broke a bolt, which i guess is common for explorers, and so the entire carriar had to be replaced(I think thats wat it was). So I would've hated to see that bill

 

[dmasini]

tenikiwon, your are right. The guy said he was just going by the book when I talked to him on the phone again. I did ask him to leave the old shoes for me though, which is good because when I got their no one was around to answer my questions or show me what they did. Three of the shoes were bare metal, looks like one of the springs had rusted through (I assume that's why it locked up), and the fourth had graphite pad on it but the pad was cracked and broken, I guess from it seizing up.

I'm still pretty pissed about the price (almost 300 just in labor) but it doesn't look like they were trying to cheat me anymore than dealers usally do.

Thanks for all the responses guys!

 

[dogfriend]

Originally posted by dmasini
. The guy said he was just going by the book when I talked to him on the phone again.

I'm trying to figure out what book says that you need to pull the axle shafts.

I have the Ford Service Manual for the 97 Explorer, and the procedure for removing and replacing the parking brake shoes does not require removing (or otherwise messing with) the axle shafts.

I'm glad you got it fixed, but I still think he gave you a line of BS.

 

[dmasini]

Yeah I think I did to. Live and learn though. Because of the high prices of getting things fixed when something goes wrong I have learned to do a lot of stuff to my X on my own (thanks to this site and all the people that belong to it!). Since it's a daily driver though sometimes it's hard to find the time to do some of the bigger things.

Anyway, dealers suck I think we all know that!