How to Replace Emergency Brakes in a Ford F-Series

The original purpose of emergency brakes was to stop your vehicle in an emergency. Fortunately, the brakes on a Ford F-Series rarely fail and the emergency brakes are most commonly used to keep the vehicle from moving while parked. The most likely type of failure for emergency brakes is when the brake cable rusts and seizes when it's not used for a long time.

Instructions

1

Determine which type of emergency brakes your Ford F-Series will need. Emergency brakes typically function by activating the regular braking system on the driving wheels. The emergency brakes for the Ford F-Series use the disc brakes on the rear wheels.

2

Move the vehicle over a hoist and place it in neutral gear. Release the parking brake control completely. Remove the left A-pillar lower trim panel.

3

Use an assistant to pull down on the intermediate parking brake cable until the parking brake control sector rotates to its stop. Insert a 4mm retainer pin to release the parking brake cable tension.

4

Disconnect the cable at the cable-to-cable union with a socket wrench. Remove the rear brake disc, brake shoe adjuster screw and brake shoe adjuster screw spring with a Phillips screwdriver. Remove both brake shoe hold-down springs, pins and the brake shoe retracting spring. You can now remove the parking brake shoes.

5

Lubricate the new parking brake shoes where they contact the wear pad. Install the new shoes and ensure they are centered.

6

Complete the installation by reversing the removal procedure and use the parking brake shoe adjuster wheel to set the parking brake shoe clearance to 0.6mm.