How strong should E-350 parking brake be? - Page 4

carringb · 08-16-2015, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

Ok went and looked at my van and with disc it has no adjustment at the wheel just a cable at the spring. How does one adjust at the pedal.

Hmmmm it still has a star wheel adjuster, even with disc since the parking brake is still a drum brake. It's just REALLY hard to get too (that's why I feel its easier to just pull the rotor off).

scatter · 08-17-2015, 05:10 PM

Well, just crawled out from under the van after adjusting the parking brake. First off, carringb is probably correct (as usual) about removing the rotor for access. But, I've never done things the easy way my whole life and didn't see any reason to start now....
So, the passenger side is easy as it's located right at the bottom of the backing plate. Just pop out the rubber plug and adjust. Looking from the front, you'll need to rotate the star wheel clockwise.
The drivers side is the fun one, but the same process. Looking from the front adjust in a counter clockwise direction. Tough to get in there, but it's doable. My parking brake holds the rig fine now.
Anyway, why does it need adjusting. Unless one leaves it on while driving around.
Drum expands over the years? Shoes got compressed?
I'll have to sit down with a wee dram of rum and cogitate on this.

carringb · 08-17-2015, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scatter

Anyway, why does it need adjusting anyway. Unless one leaves it on while driving around.
.

That's exactly why. Only took a friend driving 10 miles with it on to make it nearly useless again

Of course, that happened not less than a week after they were adjusted... He'd never driven a V10, so he didn't realized he was being held back!

**Gooseberry** · 08-18-2015, 08:31 AM

ok just went back under and yes I found the adjusters and the drivers side is a PAIN. Both sides the star nut was all the way closed. So I turned them tell they stopped and went back 8. Now you have to give it some throttle to move.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carringb

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

Ok went and looked at my van and with disc it has no adjustment at the wheel just a cable at the spring. How does one adjust at the pedal.

Hmmmm it still has a star wheel adjuster, even with disc since the parking brake is still a drum brake. It's just REALLY hard to get too (that's why I feel its easier to just pull the rotor off).

jage · 08-26-2015, 08:16 PM

Just for the record, my van is on 34s and the parking brake is fine, even on hills.

As far as auto adjustment, I think the key is you have to back up and brake faster than you'd think- I have a circle drive and creep in Reverse so on many a vehicle the brakes have gotten out of adjustment. A speedy reverse (somewhere clear) and a hard stop a few times usually gets them to tighten up, otherwise it's star wheel, although I've never done that on the D60 under the van.

Also one good thing about pulling the drums to adjust is that you can inspect the bits and make sure the star wheel and lock plate are not frozen, rusted, missing etc.

arctictraveller · 04-14-2017, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ANZAC

Mine is bad but I think I have rusted cables and rusted hardware inside the hat.

I've just taken mine apart and it was a royal pain without pulling the axles, but anyway, everything was totally rusted and frozen, no wonder they didn't work. The photo is after I pressure washed everything, prior to that it was a real mess in there. From the looks of it, there is no way to keep out water, dirt and grit from the inside of the drum. As far as I can tell, about the best I can do is to clean it all up as well as I can and then spray with some corrosion block, being carefull not to get any on the new shoes. Anybody got a better idea?

arctictraveller · 04-18-2017, 10:45 AM

I'm still waiting for my new rotors and pads, but meanwhile, on both sides I found the parking brake actuator linkage to be totally rusted and not moving. I was able to free them up, but I wonder how long they will last before freezing up again and causing the brakes to stick on, burning up my new brake shoes. I lubed the heck out of them and coated them with a thin layer of grease. Anyone got a better idea?>

No idea why my photos are posting sideways....

TomsBeast · 04-18-2017, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

I've just taken mine apart and it was a royal pain without pulling the axles, but anyway, everything was totally rusted and frozen, no wonder they didn't work. The photo is after I pressure washed everything, prior to that it was a real mess in there. From the looks of it, there is no way to keep out water, dirt and grit from the inside of the drum. As far as I can tell, about the best I can do is to clean it all up as well as I can and then spray with some corrosion block, being carefull not to get any on the new shoes. Anybody got a better idea?

Mine looked like that a year-and -a-half ago, I just had a PTSD moment seeing at that...

I inspected the rears brakes after I purchased my van in 2001, but mine are drums.

After 2 trips out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, thru the brine bath 'lake' at Land's End, I pulled mine apart (after one wheel cylinder was hanging up, wore one shoe down to metal, got noisy) Mine looked real similar to yours. Like the trailer brakes on a saltwater boat trailer I tell ya!

I've seen garden hose adapters for trailer brake backing plates, that makes it easy to flush the brakes with fresh water at home, on a salt water boat trailer

drill a 1/4" hole and run the tubing, they say.
https://www.jamestowndistributors.co....do?docId=1062

Other than that, inspect every 24mos to replace all of it and move on, inspect again in 24months.

I gutted my crusty assemblies, wire brushed corrosion from the backing plate and re-paint it, replace the wheel cylinders, bought the new Raybestos hardware kit, and premium shoes (pretty cheap, worth every penny, the shoe's metal has a corrosion resistant coating). I replaced my drums while I was at it, painted the non-friction surfaces with header paint. I learned that the two options available (for my '95 E350) have subtle differences in width. I'd advise to buy locally, because returning the heavy wrong drums to Rockauto is $$ in shipping

arctictraveller · 04-18-2017, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomsBeast

I pulled mine apart (after one wheel cylinder was hanging up, wore one shoe down to metal, got noisy)

That's exactly what happened to me. I got less than 20K out of a new set of pads, one was down to metal and the other was still at 80%. No doubt, rust caused the caliper to stop sliding, resulting in just one side working. I'm starting over with new calipers and rotors, and I painted or greased everything. Sadly I think your right though, I simply need to take everything apart yearly to inspect and repair. Hopefully next time it won't be so bad.

arctictraveller · 04-22-2017, 05:57 PM

I now have new Power stop drilled and slotted rotors, calipers, disc brake pads, and parking brake shoes. After adjusting the parking brake shoes, and burnishing the shoes per the included instructions, the brake now works, but even with the parking brake on full, the van still moves forward when put in gear at an idle on level ground. I wonder if this is normal? I'm also beginning to wonder how well the shoes match the drum. In the old days, we would radius the shoes to match the drum diameter to insure maximum contact area. I guess I should take the rotors off again to see if I can tell how much contact there is, but I sure expected better result. Otherwise, I think I have somewhat better stopping power, with the new rotors and pads but since the rear's supply much less of the total braking force it's hard to tell.