agp23109
Full Access Member
After 21 years my front parking brake cable snapped. This is the cable that runs from the pedal to the intermediate cable. It snapped in the area where it leaves the firewall. Learned something interesting while replacing it and thought I would pass it along.
First and foremost if you're replacing the brake cable make sure you remove the pedal assymbly from the wall. At first I fished the brake cable through the assymbly while it was still attached (PITA) just to find I ultmately had to remove it. Three bolts, no big deal.
After I got it all hooked up I found that the cable was about three inches too short
. I was lucky enough to purchase my truck from the original owner who was a mechanic and took impecable care of the rig. He was kind enough to give me the actual Ford shop manual for the truck. So I went to the manual, where I probably should have began. Shockingly I learned that yes you need to remove the parking brake pedal from the wall to install the cable. I also learned that our trucks have a self adjusting parking brake pedal to keep everything tensioned just right. I found that I needed to unwind the tensioner in order to get cable to reach. Followed the procedure and it didn't work. Tried several different times, removed the pedal assymply twice, pulled as hard as I could, nothing worked.
As I was fighting the pedal for well over an hour, I noticed a white plastic clip wedged into one of the rachet levers on the pedal. It seemed odd to me that that this little piece was the only plasitc in the entire pedal assymbly. After manny a cuss words and reading and re-reading the shop manual, I turned to this site.
After a quick search I learned that back in 1994 Ford issued TSB # 94V169001 (Sorry, I forgot who the OP was
). The TSB dealt with the self adjusting paring brake pedal. Apparently the rachet gears would slip causing the pedal to release. Not good, especially if you have the ZF5. The fix? The fix was that little plastic piece I noticed was wedged in the ratchet gear. This disabled the self adjusting mechanism. I removed the plastic wedge and what do you know, I was able to release the tensioner! Got the cable all hooked up and then reinserted the wedge and I was good to go.
What I found was now my brake pedal goes about a 1/4 of the way down and is rock hard. Parking brakes set like concret
. Since I have had the truck I have dealt with a weak parking brake. I keep the rear brakes adjusted and have read numerous posts on this site looking for a remedy. Obviously Ford came up with the self adjusting pedal to deal with the minor amount of slack and strech in the cable that happens from repeated use. My guess it the original owner of the truck had the TSB taken care of back in 1994. When that happend it disabled the auto tensioner. That meant there was 19 years of slack in the cable . I read several posts that said if the parking brake goes more than half way to the floor before it sets something is wrong. I agreed, I just never could figure out what that something was until yesterday.
Thought I would share this info with other people in case you are either replacing your parking brake cable or dealing with a weak parking brake. I'm not sure which year Ford came out with the self adjusting pedal. However, if you are replacing the parking brake cable you will need to remove that wedge to complete the job. Just be sure to reinstall it to keep it from slipping. If you are haveing an issue with your parking brake not setting very well, even with your pedal to the floor, you might want to check to see if you have the self adjusting pedal. If you do chances are the TSB was taken care of and that plastic wedge is preventing it from taking up the slack. If its there, remove the wedge and operate the pedal a few times. This should tighten it up. Just remember to reinsert the wedge!
Hope this helps, and prevents someone else from pulling their hair out trying to figure out why they can't get the tensioner to release
I'll snap a pic of the pedal and wedge later today and update this post so people can see what I'm talking about.
First and foremost if you're replacing the brake cable make sure you remove the pedal assymbly from the wall. At first I fished the brake cable through the assymbly while it was still attached (PITA) just to find I ultmately had to remove it. Three bolts, no big deal.
After I got it all hooked up I found that the cable was about three inches too short
. I was lucky enough to purchase my truck from the original owner who was a mechanic and took impecable care of the rig. He was kind enough to give me the actual Ford shop manual for the truck. So I went to the manual, where I probably should have began. Shockingly I learned that yes you need to remove the parking brake pedal from the wall to install the cable. I also learned that our trucks have a self adjusting parking brake pedal to keep everything tensioned just right. I found that I needed to unwind the tensioner in order to get cable to reach. Followed the procedure and it didn't work. Tried several different times, removed the pedal assymply twice, pulled as hard as I could, nothing worked.As I was fighting the pedal for well over an hour, I noticed a white plastic clip wedged into one of the rachet levers on the pedal. It seemed odd to me that that this little piece was the only plasitc in the entire pedal assymbly. After manny a cuss words and reading and re-reading the shop manual, I turned to this site.
After a quick search I learned that back in 1994 Ford issued TSB # 94V169001 (Sorry, I forgot who the OP was
). The TSB dealt with the self adjusting paring brake pedal. Apparently the rachet gears would slip causing the pedal to release. Not good, especially if you have the ZF5. The fix? The fix was that little plastic piece I noticed was wedged in the ratchet gear. This disabled the self adjusting mechanism. I removed the plastic wedge and what do you know, I was able to release the tensioner! Got the cable all hooked up and then reinserted the wedge and I was good to go.What I found was now my brake pedal goes about a 1/4 of the way down and is rock hard. Parking brakes set like concret
. Since I have had the truck I have dealt with a weak parking brake. I keep the rear brakes adjusted and have read numerous posts on this site looking for a remedy. Obviously Ford came up with the self adjusting pedal to deal with the minor amount of slack and strech in the cable that happens from repeated use. My guess it the original owner of the truck had the TSB taken care of back in 1994. When that happend it disabled the auto tensioner. That meant there was 19 years of slack in the cable . I read several posts that said if the parking brake goes more than half way to the floor before it sets something is wrong. I agreed, I just never could figure out what that something was until yesterday.Thought I would share this info with other people in case you are either replacing your parking brake cable or dealing with a weak parking brake. I'm not sure which year Ford came out with the self adjusting pedal. However, if you are replacing the parking brake cable you will need to remove that wedge to complete the job. Just be sure to reinstall it to keep it from slipping. If you are haveing an issue with your parking brake not setting very well, even with your pedal to the floor, you might want to check to see if you have the self adjusting pedal. If you do chances are the TSB was taken care of and that plastic wedge is preventing it from taking up the slack. If its there, remove the wedge and operate the pedal a few times. This should tighten it up. Just remember to reinsert the wedge!
Hope this helps, and prevents someone else from pulling their hair out trying to figure out why they can't get the tensioner to release
I'll snap a pic of the pedal and wedge later today and update this post so people can see what I'm talking about.
Seriously, welcome to the forum and thanks for posting pictures.
