2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Parking brake cable issues!

[scotty-u]

Recently had to replace the passenger side parking brake cable on my 94. Now I cannot get the slack out of the cable. I checked the old cable against TWO new cables I bought, and all are within a half inch of each other in length. (Two different parts stores, two different brands, same part number) I followed the instructions in the service manual, but I still run out of adjuster threads before I am even close to putting tension on the cable.



What I have noticed is that there is nothing to hold the end of the cable housing where the right and left sides come together. The foot pedal in the cab seems to be okay, because I can tension the spring when I pull on the cable.



Any ideas?

 

[ewcmr2]

Have you adjusted the shoes with the adjuster inside the drum? Maybe the shoes are so loose the cable doesn't have enough pull to tighten them against the drum.

 

[scotty-u]

I adjusted the shoes before I started on the parking brake cable. It seems like the cable is about 3 or 4 inches too long, but yet when compared to the old one, it is the same length. Nothing else has changed or been modified.

 

[ewcmr2]

3-4" off? Maybe the front cable became displaced up near the pedal when you removed the rear cable?

 

[HHhuntitall]

Sounds to me like the cable came out of the parking brake lever inside the drum... ... or that lever assembly is not assembled properly and moving the shoes as it should.

 

[scotty-u]

I cannot believe it has been over a year that I have been living without a parking brake. Funny though, how you adapt to the situation so much that it no longer is considered a problem.

Back to the problem: One day the parking brake worked fine, and the next time, the foot pedal went to the floor, and the truck still rolled. Long story short, the passenger side cable shell rusted out. Got a new cable, then took it all apart. As I remember, the end where the two cables come together at the adjuster did not terminate into a stationary bracket mounted to the frame. Even when I routed the new cable in the exact manner as the old one and went to adjust it, when pushing the e brake pedal in the cab, it pulled the right side cable and shell. It seems to me I need to fabricate a bracket for the two cables to terminate at, so I only pull on the cable itself, and not the cable and shell.

Can anyone with a 1994 model year look at theirs and describe or picture how their cables terminate for me. Thanks for the help.

In reference to others replies, nothing has come apart, undone, or disconnected.

In other news, got 20. 9 miles per gallon on a highway trip to a farm sale (ran empty both ways)! Woo hoo.

 

[ESwartzer]

You may have the cable terminations in opposite positions, I just replaced mine and had to double take which cable went where. Check and make sure the passenger side cable goes through the frame bracket and locks into the adjuster and the driver side locks to the frame bracket.