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Author Topic: My parking break does not work  (Read 2283 times)

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Offline Red Beauty

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My parking break does not work
« on: December 11, 2013, 08:04:10 PM »
The parking break on my 77 pinto wagon will not ingage. Is it a cable? How do I fix it? I am new in the world of ford pinto mechanics and am eager to learn. There's not much info online though that I can find. Not to mention I am relatively new to auto mechanics in general.
Can any one help!?
Thanks
-William


Offline DBSS1234

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2013, 10:46:33 PM »
The parking brake on the Pinto is cable accuated. Lifting the lever pulls on a cable which in turn pulls on a lever expanding the rear brake shoes. Most likley your problem is a rusted brake cable. This happens when the parking brake is not used very often, very comon on automatic transmission cars as most people just put in park and not engage the parking brake.To be safe replace it with a new one.

Offline Red Beauty

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2013, 10:52:38 PM »
Thank you for responding DBSS1234! I apreciate your response.
When I lift the handle it is as if no cable is attached to it. How do I see if that is the case or not. What kind of work needs to be done and where do I look?
Thanks again.

Offline Jerry merrill

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2013, 11:05:14 PM »
Look under the car below the brake handle area above the drive shaft to see if the cable is connected to the horseshoe  shaped bracket attached to the brake mechanism.

Offline Red Beauty

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2013, 11:38:51 PM »
All rights, thanks Jerry!

Offline D.R.Ball

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2013, 07:03:56 PM »
It might also be the brake hardware on the drums. A good way to check is jack the car up, use jack stands to support the rear end and remove one wheel and drum. Get a good manual and see if everything is there, on that side, and than, of course check the other side. I'm betting it's not the cable but the hardware that makes everything work..  I have had to replace the hardware on two cars. If you get a brake hardware kit you should have every thing you need to fix the problem, just the hardware nothing else IE no brake shoes , cylinder etc...

Offline waldo786

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Re: My parking break does not work
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2014, 08:36:05 PM »
I have a similar problem, although mine seems to be hard to pull up and the lever goes back down without it seeming to do anything.  I do plan on having it checked out but have no idea what is wrong.