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I bought a 1999.5 F-250 early this year. It had new brakes installed, just before I made the purchase. However, a friend of mine drove the truck about 20 miles, before releasing the emergency brake (just on oversight). Resulting in my now having to push the emergency brake peddal almost to the floor to engage the emergency brake. Is this a fix that I can do myself....I don't have any truck brake experience, or any special brake tools. Any advise, or direction would be greatly appreciated! |
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Quote: You don't need "truck" brake experience. But experience working on the drum brakes on old cars would be a plus. 
First step is to adjust the parking brakes. This is relatively simple. The parking brake is an ole-fashioned drum brake up inside the rear disk brake rotors. You adjust it just like any drum brake - with a "star"-shaped adjusting wheel. Turn the star adjustor until the brake linings are tight against the drum, then back off just enough to let the hub free-wheel. If you have an old brake adjusting tool, that makes it easier. But a lot of us old shade-tree mechanics "make do" with a big flat screwdriver. To get to the star adjustor, crawl under the truck and look at the back-side of the hub. There is a removeable rubber plug near the bottom of the hub. Remove that plug and you can see the star wheel adjustor. If that does it, you're done. But if adjusting the parking brake linings doesn't do the trick, then the next step is to replace the brake linings, and perhaps do a complete "brake job" on the parking brake assembly. That's a lot more complicated task, but most shade-tree mechanics can do it. The big problem is removing the disk brake calipers and the hubs that include the disk and the "drum-in-hat" parking brake drum. But it's doable. If you think you might want to tackle this task, holler back and someone will quote you the workshop manual procedures required to do it. |
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Hey Smokey, Thanks so much for the encouragement and direction. I am going to try to make this fix! Thanks again for your help! 
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joggerman... I recently replaced all of my brakes 146,000 miles on originals, and my rear axle seals had started to weep. The oil was in my drums and basicly made my E brakes ineffective. Basic tools will get the rotor/drum off, it is all very straight forward. |
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Quote: If adjusting the parking brake shoes doesn't fix it, then here are the words from the workshop manual for removing the disk. Sorry, but the illustrations won't copy over to this forum. 2000 F-Super Duty/Excursion/Motorhome Chassis Workshop Manual SECTION 206-04: Rear Disc Brake Remove the brake caliper and the brake caliper anchor plate, and the disk. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To remove the brake caliper: Raise and support the vehicle. .. Remove the wheel and tire assembly. ... Remove the banjo bolt and plug the brake hose. Install new copper washers. Remove the caliper pin bolts. Remove the rear disc brake caliper (2552). xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To Remove the brake caliper anchor plate: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brake Caliper Anchor Plate Removal Remove the brake pads... NOTE: Forward-of-axle rear disc brake caliper anchor (2B582) plates are mounted using stud bolts. Remove the bolts and the rear disc brake caliper anchor plate. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Remove the disk. You can probably figure it out from there. Edited by SmokeyWren (07/04/04 09:54 PM) |
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Smokey and Mr Bee....you guys are great! I hope I can return the favor sometime soon! Thanks again for your support!
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The only thing I would add is not to turn the drums. What most people (with the exception of about 2) don't realize is that the OE rotor DIH surface is shot peened to improve the holding ability. If this surface is removed, or does not come with aftermarket rotors, grade holding performance is reduced. The other issue with resurfacing the drums is that the diameter is changed. The DIH brake is very sensitive to the proper contact to work effectively, and the DIH lining manufacturer has to take extraordinary care on the radius grind. Coming off of the production line, and noted in the service manual for when replacing the shoes, there is a necessary step of completing a few brake applications to seat in the shoes. However, if done too much, the linings can form a glaze that will hinder performance. Same can happen if the parking brake is left on. Here is a pic showing what an excessive amount of 40 mph stops can do to the linings. It also shows where the adjusting star wheel is. |
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Quote: Good job, Jack. I edited my post above accordingly. 
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Thanks Smokey. I'm not sure how many people realize that about the DIH section of the rotors. I know several mechanics that I have talked to when they are changing out the rear rotors did know realize it. All you have to do is read messages hear to understand how marginal that brake is. I don't have any of the presentation with me (hard to believe I'm babysitting 2 grandchildren as I'm writing this) but let me try to do this so next week I'm not asking if someone wants fries with their meal. I'll also summarize a different vehicle to bypass that event. Let's compare the parking brake capability of the F-150 disc / disc to disc / drum of just a few years ago. Both vehicle have approximately the same reel diameter and pedal ratio in the parking brake application mechanism, so the cable tension is about the same. But lets look at the foundation brake end. First, with the diameters, the older drum was an 11" while the DIH is about 9". When you compare the leverage of the tires rolling radius of approximately 16", that's a good change. Then shoe widths; the original drum was 2" while the DIH is about 1.3", so based on the segment length x width, the surface area is much smaller, contributing to less capacity under dynamic conditions. And since it's parking only, DIH does not get the constant brake conditioning, and improvement in contact. It's not a primary contributor, so I'm sure we can all bet it's a low cost priority. The other factor is the parking apply lever ratios. The service drum has a long apply arm going from the top of the secondary shoe to the cable, while the DIH has a smaller lever. The ratios are not as much different then you might imagine, but it contributes. Long way to say, DIH is typically marginal. Suns out ..... TO THE BEACH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Jack....a special "thank you" is in order! I appreciate the info you have provided. I am learning everyday, thanks to the wonderful support shown on TheDieselStop.com. What a great experience for me! |
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joggerman, you can't go wrong listening to FMTRVT and Smokey, and moderator Larry M. (among many others). A good thing to do would be to find FMTRVT's install page HERE and Larry M's "Little Keeper Of Secrets" page HERE and add these to your "Add Favorites" in your internet browser. I have a truck folder in my favorites for these, and the knowledge between them is remarkable. These 2 pages alone have tons of data. |
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I found this thread on a search and have a question on this topic. The parking brake on my '01 F-350 has gone out of adjustment and I've been attempting to tighten them up. I had found the dust plug mentioned and after about 30 minutes of attempting to adjust the brakes through it with no success, I pulled the rotor to see how it worked. My slack adjuster has no star nut on it, I bought the truck new and this is the first the brakes have been serviced. I've only worked on the driver's side so far so I can't report on the other side. After my findings I came here to learn the procedure. I just want to verify that there's no other method of tightening the brakes before pulling the hub to access the adjuster if it needs replaced. Is this the case? Thanks! |
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Emergency Brake
