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My 94 F-150 parking brake is stuck on. I noticed it when my truck would need more gas just to more (a lot more gas). I looked at the parking brake cables and the front on and the rear drivers side work, they both lock up and decompress. But the right rear doesn't. Before I looked at the inside of the rear brakes (which are drums), and notice that the parking brake lever wont move; I had a really tough time getting the drum off. You could hear things moving and scraping when trying to pull it off and when it was being pulled it would spring back on. But I did get it off. So I was able to see that the line and spring are still compressed and that it is pulling the lever and forcing the shoe pads to go outwards. I was able to disconnect the line and the spring still did not decompress. I was wondering what else I can do? The springs are really tight and they barely move and its almost impossible to get any springs off. I can but just wondering if theres anything else i should check? The line looks rusty in some spots could it have jammed up? If so should i just cut it off and get a new one? sorry this is so long just gotta try getting it fixed asap and on a low college budget. :)

Npeterson, Welcome back.

Submitted by drivability on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 23:15.

Npeterson,

Welcome back. How's the Escort and school?

Yes, the brake cable could have frozen (pretty common). I'm not there to see it but it sounds like replacement would be the best thing. I've seen some people free them up but they usually end up failing very soon.

One thing you could do (without taking the other springs off) is to remove the shoes by carefully removing the hold downs (keep in mind that the shoes will likely collapse in quickly because of the spring tension). Once the shoes are off you can, with 100% accuracy, check the function of the cable.

This link will show you the hold downs if you are not familiar. Register at autozone.com.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/repairinfo/repairguide/repairGuideContent.jsp?pageId=0996b43f8038ecae

Let us know what you find. Thanks.

Hey, the escorts great!!

Submitted by npeterson4 on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 11:17.

Hey, the escorts great!! Thank you and everyone else who helped me get it in tip top shape! The check engine light is still off, and hasn't even flickered at all. It accelerates fast and way better on gas too. I am keeping up with it and I think it will last maybe even beyond me graduating haha. Schools good and passing everything lol. So I am gonna try this out it makes sense, but I just didn't wanna go and brake anything furthur. Thanks and I'll get back with the results.

You stated that the cable was

Submitted by ASE MASTER on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 14:22.

You stated that the cable was rusted in spots. Did you really mean to say corroded? Do you own a boat and haul it with your F-150? Do you live in an area where there is a concentration of salt in the air? In other words (NEAR SALT WATER)? Do you back your F-150 into (SALT WATER) to launch your boat? I'm sure you see the point being made here. Salt air and water (WILL) act as a corrosive over time. The amount of (YES) answers to the above will impact the repair below.

Replace the backing plate.
Replace the brake hardware.
Replace the cable.

Check the brake shoes from time to time to confirm that are riding on the (HIGH SPOTS) of the backing plate.