Park brake not releasing

After launching my sailboat (with the rear wheels submerged), truck was parked for a few hours. Then when retrieving the boat and setting the park brake on the launch ramp, the left park brake refused to release. After trying several things, a tap on inside of the rear wheel assembly did the trick and it did release. This locking has happened other times after launching the boat but never to this extent. The truck is a 6 speed standard 4X4, the park brake is used all the time and works flawlessly, EXCEPT in these circumstances. What should I look for? How do I resolve the problem.

 

Pull the drums off and blast everything that has to do with the rear brakes with brake clean. Make sure you get every piece of dirt and brake dust out of there. You may need about 4 cans to do the job. Then when your done and everything is dry, lube all the contact points, the adjuster, and anything else metal on metal that will move and rub beside your shoe and drum surface of course. That should mitigate any future problems. Do this every time you rotate your tires and you should be good.

 

I've had this happen launching my boat and I've found that riding the brakes a little before parking dries the drums and shoes enough to avoid sticking.

 

It happens when I wash my truck. I just don't set the parking brake.

 

I have had that happen too after I hosed out the underbody. I had to put the truck in reverse the last time to get one of the rear brakes to unlock. Someone suggested the semi-metallic brake pads are rusting fast to the brake drums. I leave the parking brake off now after I have hosed out the underbody.

 

That happened on my '06 at 125k, the E brake cables were toast.

 

My first thought was that the internals just froze up based on the circumstances behind it because of the water or may had gotten grit and dirt inside of it. Like stated previously just get tour stuff lubed up and you should be good to go.

 

Disk conversion.

 

I believe you are experiencing flash rust which is making them stick together. Hard to avoid. Not sure how steep the launch is but you could probably get away with leaving it in park/reverse depending which transmission you have.