94 Ranger parking break problems

You may need to adjust the rear brakes.

Eric wrote: 1994 Ranger 4x4

Parking break barely works. It just holds a little bit at the last notch. There is a ratchet-type system in the pedal. Is this how it is adjusted? It has new cables so that is not the problem. ________________________________________

The ratchet is there to retain the pedal when it is depressed.

New cables will stretch, so readjustment may be needed.

In most trucks, the cable from the brake pedal ends at a fitting under the truck bed. From that fitting, other cables go back to the brake shoes. Find the fitting and you will immediately see how it can be adjusted to take up the slack.

Good luck.

Rodan. _________________________________________

Eric, I am with JimV on this one. You can adjust your brakes real easy. All you have to do is back up. Thats it, they automatically adjust, but if the previous owner rarely backed up, then it can easily go out of adjustment. Just find an empty parking lot, and back up about 30ft, and hit your brakes, do this about 2-3 times. Then apply your parking brake, and if you have an auto, put it in drive and see if they hold. If they hold, the brakes are properly adjusted. You can even back up a couple more times, just to make sure they are adjusted properly, but I dont see how the cables can stretch enough for the park brake to not function. In fact, they should be adjusted well enough that you shouldnt have to push the pedal more than half way down to get braking action. If you need to do more adjustment, Rodan, hit the nail on the head. On the drivers side, about halfway back on the bed, is an adjustment. Just turn the nut to shorten the cables a little bit. On P/B cables, alittle goes along ways. A quarter of an inch should take up more than enough slack. Pk

Unless somebody f*cked up and put the adjusters together wrong when they replaced the cables Or swapped them from left to right or put the fork that holds the adjuster to the shoes on backwards.