Rear brakes/ e brake drag and stick

Last few days weather has been cold, wet and nasty in IL and I park on a sloped driveway with a manual trans. Noticed this summer while doing the brakes that where cables entered the rear of the drum, they were broken and flopped around in the housing. Seemed like it could be a wet weather issue and it has been. Rear wheels locked up driving today, sometimes they won’t come unstuck after taking off ebrake, ebrake is now out of adjustment and doesn’t work anyway (assuming from rocking back and forth trying to free up the drums.

a couple questions:

1) is there a temp fix that won’t require rolling around on my frozen driveway or disassembling rear drums on an icy frozen slope?

2) any alternative fix to oem cables for the long term? Looked online and cheapest I saw them was something like $70 and $90 respectively for passenger and driver side.

3) Am I in danger of messing up anything trying to free them up by overcoming the drag by rocking back and forth?

Thanks!

 

I had this happen to me at work the other day. I tapped the drum with a socket wrench and it was enough to free the shoes.

 

Yeah, thats a good idea. Maybe toss a hammer in the rear seat storage. Not totally sure if it is the rear cable itself or the moisture in the drum that is causing me issues.

 

I figured mine was from moisture in the brake fluid freezing. It’s only happened in severe cold. I haven’t flushed the system ever honestly and I’m sure it needs it.

 

Any area that gets water into due to melting conditions or brine solution sprayed that gets into the rear drums will freeze the shoes to the drums - that's life in the cold when freezes. Get the stock cables and replace if frayed. Look online for best prices of course OEM.

 

I live in cold, snowy central NH, where the roads are regularly doused with salt/brine. Predictably, my e-brake hasn't worked reliably for years - if I pull it hard enough to be effective, it gets stuck. This even after having a mechanic say there was nothing wrong with it. So I just keep a piece of firewood in the bed of the truck to chock a wheel if I need to park on a slope.

 

so, my cables aren’t frayed- it is the captured part of the cable that enters the rear of the drum setup. It is broken. In warm weather, it’s not a problem because when you put tension on the cable, it still pulls tight and everything lines up. In cold weather, the broken fitting (on the cable sheath, not the cable itself) I think is providing an opportunity for water ingress either to the cable or to the brake drum.

 

do your drums stick and drag even when the brake isn’t in use? I think that’s what’s started to happen with mine. Hard to tell, but lately I feel like there is extra drag. Haven’t wanted to Jack the rear of the truck up (wet/ icy/ sloped driveway/ no functioning ebrake) to check, but it certainly feels that way.

 

That happened to me all last winter. Got to the point where I would get stuck of flat icy surfaces because of the open diff. Had to stop using my ebrake for pretty much the whole rest of the winter. Carried around a wheel chock till I could get it fixed so I could have my truck running when I wasn't in it.

 

that’s what has been happening to me- street slightly iced over the other day and my one wheel is spinning and I’m out of control on the ice, meanwhile neighbors in carollas are all driving by me givingn me weird looksgonna try the hammer tap and maybe a shot of penetrating fluid on the cable today before I go out. My real worry is dragging a shoe on the drum everywhere- brakes are new this summer and don’t want to destroy the shoe or the drum by driving that way.

 

No, just if I use the e-brake. Once it frees up, no problem unless I try to use it again.

 

Hammer tap freed me up no problem. Forgot first parking spot I pulled into though and pulled the handbrake again. Gonna have to restrain myself. Just keep the hammer in the back...