Frozen e-brake

Winters comin and my e-brake (usually the left side) is already freezing during the night...not exactly the best thing for when i have to speed to work in the morning. I dont mind parking the truck in gear but is there a effective way to fix this? Thanks.

I think folks living in cold country just park in gear. In low range, 1st gear it'll hold pretty well.

There are a few places the e-brake can sieze up. The first place it can sieze is the lever-arm under the cab under the passenger seat. But if that siezes, it normally pulls both rear cables tight, not necessarily just one (it depends on how balanced the rear cables have been adjusted). The next place they like to sieze up is at the drums themselves. It's a bit of work do to, but it can be cleaned up and anti-siezed to last a couple years (here in the rusty north) before more maintenance. I normally have to touch things up once every few years. The arms that the rear cables connect to at the drums are steel, but the small housing they run through on the outside of the drum (has a rubber bootie over it) is aluminum, and things corrode here. If this does not move freely, it is likely what is seized. In order to fix it, I often have to take the lever off, which requires disasembling the brakes and removing two 10mm nuts and disconnecting the parking brake cable. In the worst cases, I've had to bash the lever back and forth with the aluminum housing securely in a vice. And in the worst of those cases, I've busted the housing. You may want to try pulling up the rubber bootie first before disconnecting or disassembling and see if you can free it up (lots of lube too).

In addition to this lever arm, there's a small rotating "v" shaped bracket inside the drum that connects on one end to the lever with a short cable and on the other end to the rest of the braking system. Chances are, this is siezed up too (though it's much easier to unsieze).

Once it's all freed up, make sure to put some antisieze on the lever arm and housing, then pull the bootie back down. Then, make sure to use your parking brake regularly. It helps prevent any buildup of rust, and once every year or so, check to see if it needs more antisieze applied. Also, the use of the rear parking brake is what adjusts the rear brake pads, so if your parking brake hasn't worked for a long time, your rear brakes might not be functioning at their best.

Furthermore, if your rear brakes aren't engaging anymore because the parking brake is out of commmission, you'll want to read my article on rusty rear brake lines:

http://www.geocities.com/toyotashawn/brakes.html

4Crawler--too bad you don't have to deal with this in sunny cali!

Well, have had it happen once on my VW (front wheel drive). Rear brake shoe rusted to the drum and would not break loose, tire just skidded on wet pavement.

if it's the brake lever, you should beable to pull it out and free it up in a vise. there is a pin the holds the l shaped lever in the housing that bolts to the drum backing plate. seperate the lever and small housing and clean and pack that sucker with anti seize,. they still used that design up untill the new tundras. I get them all the time at work.

mnwolftrack's post is exelant.
I've found that the rubber boot causes more harm than good - at least in a truck that gets used in mud and deep water - it seems to hold in more than it keeps out. Once the lever is free, and the boot is cut off, it is easier to keep it clean and lubed. After being in mud give it a good blast with the pressure washer. Whenever you have a lubricant nearby give it a little dab or spray.

Pete, I park in gear. MNWolf's reply is very good. One of the other things I do going into winter is pull down the spare tire and clean/lube all the goodies up there too.
Antiseize and PB Blaster!

Im always able to free up the brake pivot arms by spraying silikroil in where the arm goes into the housing and working the arm back and forth with a bfh and pulling on the cable alternately until its free. I never disassemble the rear drum and it seems to work.

Yeah, I know. Old post. But I am dealing with this right now. For the last couple of years I've gotten away with doing this every six months or so. But last fall they seized up on me (just the right side this time) only a few weeks after having hit them and having freed them up. So, I took care of that, but only a few days later the problem came back. So, now I think I need to actually take things apart and get rid of the corrosion. I also live in wonderful Minnesota.

what year truck?
mine are 85's

the 85's have a different arm then the newer one's.

I have:
taken the lever out and pried the metal, rusty lining out of them. leaves them loose. I used a drill bit to help cut through the metal. don't drill or damage the pot metal to much!

also taken the newer pivots and replaced the arm with the one from the 85.
the newer one's don't have the metal sleave in them that I can tell.

Mine's a '94. I'll take a look at that stuff when I get into it.

I ended up taking everything apart, cleaning most of the moving components, sanding them down a bit until smooth, and then hitting them up with some dry lube. We'll see how long that lasts. If had some rustoleum (sp?) around I'd have hit them with that too. But I didn't.

I just did a R&R with lots of anti-seize on the left side.

Now i have a problem with the right side. I can't even pull my drum out of the backing plate. I've tried with lots of BFH & pulling technique, the 2 extraction bolts methods (threads on the drum only got stripped in the process).

The adjusting wheel is seized obviously so i can't back off the adjustment. What can i do to pull the drum out? The shoes are caught in the inner lip of the drum! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

well make sure you have the adjustment lever pushed back.
make sure you are turning it the correct direction.
try it if it clicks, that is the wrong way.

if you can kinda see the adjuster hit it with some penetrating oil.

good luck!

It's impossible. Mine haven't been touched over 2 winters & is seized solid. The chance of making the adjuster turning thru the hole with a screwdriver would = to winning a million $ lottery ticket!!!

Backing off on the adjusters is critical, but if you can't do that, then I don't know what to say. FWIW, when you get a screwdriver on the adjusting screws (through the service hole) you have to push down on the screwdriver to loosen the brakes. I also found it very helpful to stick another screwdriver in there, a real small skinny one, and to push that lever out of the way so that the screw will freely turn. To do this you have to go over the screw and just in front of the adjuster part. You'll feel a little resistance as you push that plate off the teeth of the adjuster wheel.

well then,
try to find the little pins that hold the brake shoes on, the one with the little cup and spring thing.
grind or chisel the back of the pin off on the back side.

course if you can't pry them off then you are really hosed.

I have never tried it but I also wonder if you took the bolts out of the wheel cylinder and tried prying.