Archived Parking Brake Stuck

[JoshPeters]

Has anyone had a problem with their

parking brake? Last night when I got home I set my parking brake, as I always do, today when I tried to leave the left rear is stuck tight. It started snowing last night and we now have about 4inches on the roads, so I can't just find a dry piece of pavement to try and jogg it loose. Any ideas? I think I'm gonna try and heat the drum with a torch... ... very carfully... . I'm supposed to be on the road right now, I can get out of that, but it HAS to be unstuck by tomorrow AM for work!





Josh

 

[rrausch]

The driver's side rear brake on my '95 used to frequently run hot and smoke but not lock up, but only in the rear and only on the driver's side. I thought it was due to backing down a steep driveway and hitting the brakes hard and thereby tightening the self-adjusting brakes. I would have to crawl under it and take a long flat-bladed screwdriver and loosen the adjusting wheel through the drum backing plate. It stopped doing that when I stopped backing down that steep driveway.

 

[dpuckett]

You mentioned you just got some snow and ice. Your cable could be literally frozen, esp if it is humid or damp in your area. Take the torch to the cable going into the brake housing first to melt the ice (if that is the case). THen spray some WD40, PB BLaster, et al, liberally on the cable to disperse any further ice and snow.



Daniel

 

[bmoeller]

Originally posted by dpuckett

You mentioned you just got some snow and ice. Your cable could be literally frozen

Or your shoe is frozen to the drum. Have it happen sometimes with the semi trailers in the winter.

 

[Whitmore]

Josh,your drums get warn during use and any ice or snow will get between the brake shoes and melt into water so if you park the truck and set the brake this water will turn to ice and freeze up to the point where the wheel wont turn, the ONLY fix for this is not to set the e-brake when parked, now that it is frose you can either heat it up a pinch or get a hammer and firmly tap all around the drum to crack the ice up till the wheel will turn.



Cheers, Kevin

 

[JoshPeters]

Well I got it free'ed up. I went out in my driveway and rocked the truck forward and backward while setting and releasing the E-brake. I prefer to set my E-brake when I park on my driveway, due to the grade. For now it's free and I won't be using the E-brake for a while. Thanks for the help!



Josh

 

[illflem]

Old habit for me not to use the e-brake in very cold weather due to the shoes getting froze to the drums. Not so bad with the Cummins since it has the power to break lose, had some compacts that wouldn't move without killing the engine.

 

[JoshPeters]

Oh it has the power, I drove about 5 miles with the left rear not moving an inch! Granted it was all snow, and sideways the entire time, but it still went about 35 down the road!





Josh

PS, no bald spots on the tires, I checked them at work today.