E brake issue

Yesterday my E brake started feeling much different. There is not tension till about 60% out. Wheels are not locked up. The weather has been funky.. 26f to 34 and about 6” of snow.
Not sure if that could have an impact.
Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

This is on the 1996? 24 years old hardware? Time to rebuild the rear brakes?

 

Yes...

 

My guess is your auto adjuster screw in the rear brake shoe assembly is not working. Your shoes are too far away from the drum surface. I had to manually adjust mine through the back to get a very slight drag to correct the issue. My parking brake now sets with just 6 - 7 clicks. The star wheel is supposed to adjust as needed each time you use the parking brake but in my case as sounds like yours it does not move freely enough to do that. I will open mine up in the spring to clean and free up things but for now it is correct. BTW, my brake pedal and stopping performance is much improved too.

 

In addition to what taco57 said, you may also want to check the bell crank assembly on the back of the drum. It has a pivoting mechanism that can rust shut. I just replaced mine a week or two ago. Water and grime can get trapped under the rubber boot. Here's what it looks like disassembled:

 

For what it is worth I clean up the Bell Cranks and just use new brackets .

The fact you have a Steel Pin going through a Aluminum Alloy if they sit to long in a damp climate they will seize up

Never seize is your friend .

Most times I need to cut the brackets off