Parking Brake Issues

[Chris Whitman]

Hey Guys,

So I had this clicking sound in the rear wheels and found out that it was the pads for the Parking Brakes. They had fallen off and were rattling around inside the disk.



So the questions I ask is how difficult is it for me to replace the parking brakes? Is it something I can do myself or should I have something else do this?



Thanks for the help guys.

Whit

 

[Richard L]

Chris,

It's not hard at all....but you will need a guide to know how things go back together. It's easier if you take them apart rather than have them fall apart...:grin:



If you are lucky, one of the rear brakes are still intact and you can take some photos. Everything on the other side are just a mirror image. In fact if you have photo manipulating software or even MS Word on your PC, you can make a mirror image (left to right) of the good side and use it as a model to see how everything goes together on the other side.



Just look carefully at how all the parts go together before you disassembly anything, and take photos or draw diagrams. Mainenance manuals are good for this, but sometimes the photos or diagrams are not that good.



...Rich

 

[Chris Whitman]

Pads on both sides have fallen off. So I guess I will just take it somewhere.



Whit

 

[Richard L]

Chris27,

Pads??? The Parking brakes use shoes not pads because they are an internal brake drum style activated by a cable. Not sure why they would have fallen off their mountings since I have never heard of that. I know that occasionally you can push the pistons out of the wheel cylinders on drum brakes, but even that is very rare on most vehicles. For parking brake shoes, they should not be too hard to figure out how to install new shoes and get them assembled right. Just find a good reference manual with diagrams.



If you had a 2001 or 2002 model with rear drum brakes, that would be more complicated because the hydraulic brakes and the mechanical parking brake are incorporated into the same set of brake shoes....not harder, just more parts to deal with. :grin:



...Rich