Parking brake rust belt blues..

[PoMansRam]

I've mentioned it in other threads, but the parking brakes began hanging up on my 2017 Ram 1500 months back with barely two winters on the truck and about 40K miles on the ODO. I was able to free them up externally at the time and I let them be until today when I did a brake job on the rear.

Not the best pics, but the rusty block looking assembly is the part of the P-brake mechanism for the right rear wheel. It's mounted on the bottom on the rear left wheel. You can see how rusty all the bits are in there. Everything is wet with PB Blaster in the pics.

When you mash the parking brake pedal, a lever arm through the backing plate actuates a cam that spreads that block open, pushing the shoes against the drum. Spring tension with the spring you see should retract the shoes. When everything jambs up with rust, the shoes won't retract and you'll notice your parking brake cable sagging.

I got all the rust out I could, PB blastered the heck out of all the metal/metal contacts I could get at and then slathered the mechanism with brake grease. They're working for now, but any fellow rust-belters might want to check this area and apply grease before things get expensive.

 

[csuder99]

I don't envy you guys in the North East. There's a Youtube channel from a small shop in Avoca that I watch mostly for his electronics troubleshooting skills (he gets the eff-ups from other shops). He swears by Fluid Film for everything that is exposed to the road salt. You'd have to clean up the rust first though.

 

[PoMansRam]

Yes! Love SMA. That shop is about 80 miles from where I live.

I joined late in the game, but got hooked on his videos about a year or two ago. The guy is amazing IMO.

 

[Wild one]

When i did my rear end swap 3 years ago,i sand blasted everything and smeared anti-seaze on the parking brake mechanism and they're still working good yet.The design does leave a lot to be desired though,as with-out some maintence they'll seaze almost overnight.

 

[DILLIGAF]

I take my brakes apart every year. Clean lube and reassemble. Dodge's are rust buckets and need extensive maintenance to keep them running.

 

[jlongjohn]

Just posted on the same thing. Mine were rusted solid and could not be freed. I just removed everything, cleaned, and replaced with all new parts.
I also believe the cable setup is horrible.











2014 Ram 1500 5.7l CrewCab
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