Is this a problem?

Is this cable supposed to be tight or tucked up more?

 

Parking brake line huh? Looks no bueno amigo

 

Yeah, doesn’t look good to me. Should be tucked up out of the way

 

Does your parking brake work still?

 

It should probably look something like this:

Does your parking brake hold your truck from rolling? Test it on an incline in neutral.
Have you been under the truck and watched while someone else applied and released the parking brake?

 

Park brake cable for sure. Park brake does not hold truck. As a rookie when it comes to auto mechanics, is this just something I need to tighten up somehow?

 

It’s hanging so loose it may be broken. You want to look at it while it’s being operated to confirm that the cable is moving with the operating of the control in the cab. If not, it may not be connected. Check this and report back

 

In the brake backing plate is a “bellcrank”, actually there is one on each side. Most likely one or both are siezed on the pivot - the lever is steel inside an aluminum pivot. Add road salt, time, and possibly not using the parking brake regularly, they sieze up, causing the rear shoes to drag and overheat, and also not self-adjust.

Dorman makes an aftermarket kit to fix this, p/n 924-752, much cheaper than OEM.

https://www.amazon.ca/Dorman-924-752-Parking-Brake-Crank/dp/B00C0UAABW

 

There’s a turnbuckle in the drivers side frame rail under the drivers door that will take the slack out. However, that’s a lot of slack and not sure if you can take all that out. Tighten the turnbuckle and see how much slack is taken out.

 

What is everyones thoughts on spraying anti-sieze on those “bell cranks” (careful to not spray on pads) and the turn buckle adjustments (under driver side door) to free them up? I’ve tried to adjust the turn buckle in the past without success. Never had a droop (as bad as) OP.

BTW my parking brake never seemed to work properly ever since driving off the lot. Most other parking brakes would completely stop vehicle from moving. The 02’ Tundra it just seemed to slow things at half strength. Never a solid lock. Even had my mechanic ‘adjust’ one time and it was slightly better but never full strength.

 

The cable does move easily when the pedal in the cab is operated. Thankfully it doesn't appear broken.

I found the turnbuckle and once it cools off a bit here, I'll tighten it up. Got some penetrating oil on it now. It definitely is alot of slack. Looks like almost 3 inches. Not sure if I have that much room in the turnbuckle, but we'll see

 

Anti-sieze or water resistant high temp grease is a great way to prevent the bellcranks seizing, but won’t do much to free them up in my experience.

OP’s ‘05 has bigger rear brakes than your ‘02, and they do hold pretty good when all adjusted correctly.

Should have quote PHM...

 

Check those bellcranks first, otherwise burnt rear shoes, axle seals... could be in your future.

 

Hmm, gonna have to figure out how to do that without a jack or jackstands. LOL.

 

You can just grab them from the back side without removing the wheel / drum to check them. They are the exposed levers the cables attach to.

To replace them the drum and shoes have to be removed, but you can check for full movement back against the adjustable stop bolt just by crawling under the truck.

Depending on how bad they are siezed (still assuming they are) you can tap them back to the released position, which should stop any dragging in the short term, and take the slack out of the cable so you don’t do the fighter jet / aircraft carrier thing.

 

I always did want to be a fighter pilot.

Yeah, they were definitely seized. The stop bolt was about 1/2" away from the stop plate on the driver's side and at least an inch away on the passenger side. I tapped them back into place and cable slack is gone. I ordered up a jack and stands which should be here next week. I also ordered that parts kit you linked to. The stuff should be here on Wed so hopefully next weekend I'll tackle this job.

Thanks for the help!

 

Success!

 

Nice work and does the parking brake work?

 

I haven't tested it since knocking the stop bolts back into place. Thunderstorm rolling in so I'll check that after the rain stops.

 

I wonder now that they are tapped back if the anti seize and some grease would suffice? Obviously, new parts on the way is best but for future may be an option. Haven’t used my parking brake in a while and this thread has me wondering. Great advice people!

 

Went under and checked the cable which is slightly taut with the bell cranks and springs against the backside of drum case at the bolt stop. No tapping required as they weren’t seized. Greased them up. Can see how one would have to remove the entire drum to access the internal parts shrouded by the rubber boot where the bell cranks dive into the drum.

Test pushed the parking brake foot pedal and it felt firm, but failed to stop the trucks forward movement in anyway. This is why I stopped using the parking brake because its easy to forget its on if it doesn't stop the truck. May need to work on it a bit more near the turnbuckle.

 

Conclusion: For the 02’ Tundra, seems as if the design for this parking park is poor. Came to this conclusion after adjustments were made at the turnbuckle. I PB blasted the nuts at the turnbuckle under drivers side door. My cable was not very loose, but was able to relieve about an inch of thread on the adjusting rod. Got it at the optimum point and the brake is only slightly better.

I think the lever hitch on the middle of the back axle where the cable dissects to go to each drum is where the design is flawed (dissimilar pull pressures). After that there are too many variables to adjust making the solution not worth the time.

Hope the OP has better success. Looking forward to the info.

 

There's a cable inside the drum itself too. I had to replace both of them and the bell cranks on both sides of my 04...and it will hold great for about 2 weeks then even using it every day to keep it adjusted it seems to loosen up.

 

Yeah this is what I was thinking. Not worth it. Thanks for the input.

 

Yeah, sorry guys. Weather took a turn for the worse here and with no garage it looks like I won't be tackling this until later in the week.

We'll see how involved the work gets on it, but I may end up returning the parts to Amazon if it's too much of a hassle. I honestly never use the parking brake anyways, which is probably why it's seized on my truck.

 

Same here. Except the seizing part. You could spray and put some grease on the cranks, adjust the turnbuckle to take out remaining slack, and call it a day. Its a bad design problem IMO. Too many working parts. Not to mention the stretch factor on the cable. You could chase this thing forever!

 

Weird timing of your post (in relation to a recent first ever conversation I had about this same thing): my sister and b.i.l. live in northern ID where the winters get cold. They've experienced this failure of the parking brake and believe, based on others' experience in that area, that it literally freezes up. I think they fixed it once (warrantee period) then left it alone after that....

 

I think that's what I'm going to do. I cancelled the parts order for now. Since the only time I ever used it was while working under the truck, I'll just forget about trying to fix it and chock the tires when needed.