Looking for some info.My folks have a Winnebago Minnie riding on a 2002 Ford E350 chassis. Last time out my dad drove about 5 miles at in-town speed with the parking brake on. Currently the parking brake won't hold if the transmission is in gear.My dad took it his local rv dealer and they want $2200 to replace the parking brake. Dealer said something about needing to remove the axles from the axle housing. From what I can find on-line it uses some sort of a brake drum on the transmission output shaft, not the drum-in-disc style the dealer seems to be implying.Anybody have a class C of that vintage that can comment on the kind of parking brake it has?I did some searching and results were a bit ambiguous to me. I would obviously take a look for myself but it's at the storage yard and I was wondering if anybody knew the answer on the top of their head before I drive out to see the state of things.

My F-350 would not hold. Turned out to be the ratchet assembly at the pedal. It would ratchet but not pull the cable. Soaked the whole assembly with wd-40,put down a towel, Pump the pedal several times and spray it again. My park brake works every time. Cost $0

I am not 100% certain on the 2002 model year E350, but....For model year 2007, that special parking brake is attached to the drive shaft directly behind the transmission, but ONLY THE E450 cutaway has it. The E350 cutaway has rear disk brakes like many cars with the parking brake being a miniature drum brake inside the hat portion of the brake rotor. Any repairs to it should cost a little more than a car. A $2200 quote is a snow job.Driving 5 miles in town should not ruin the parking brake. A worst case scenario would be that the drum portion and miniature brake shoes formed a glaze which could easily be cleaned off using sand paper to provide better gripping power. A mechanic would have to remove the brake rotors which involves a cotter pin and wheel bearings, but that should cost around 2 hours of labor, not 20 hours of labor, hence $2200 is a rip off.If doing that, I advise to pay a little extra to have the rear grease seals replaced and the rear wheel bearings packed with more grease. Grease seals might run $10 a piece. A mechanic with integrity might charge an extra $50 to do that for both wheels.As the previous reply suggested, I wonder if the parking brake cable mechanism needs lubricating, maybe also adjusting so the parking brake pedal is more effective.Doing a quick search for clarification, I found this diagram of a miniature drum-&-shoe parking brake system inside rear disk brakes for a typical car. The E350 is similar.Here is a grease seal which costs maybe $6 at an Autozone.

E350 didn't get rear wheel disc brakes till long after E450 came out with them. My RockAuto parts list shows this DRUM for 2002 E350 V10 with Dual Rear Wheels.That would be Shoe Replacement/Adjustment and I'd install new Cylinders and Hardware Kit. Some require pulling the axle shafts, dismantling the bearings, and others the drum just slides off the wheel studs.Find out what's there and let's see about adjusting what's there first. Ron has very good adjustment notes.

Well, well, well,So the 2002 E350 cutaway has rear drum brakes. As j-d mentioned, I do strongly recommend adjusting the brake shoes for best braking performance as well as best parking brake performance.Just about every vehicle with rear drum brakes are adjusted without disassembling anything. Leave the wheels on the vehicle. Just raise the rear of the vehicle, placing the rear axle on very strong jack stands, positioning the stands as close to the leaf spring attachment points as possible. Identify the 1.25" long oval rubber boot on the back side of the drum plate. Remove the boot and adjust the brake shoe star wheel inside.For my previous Toyota-based motor home with rear drum brakes, after getting a new rear axle with new brakes from a recall, I had to adjust them 18 to 20 times per side until the shoes lightly contacted the drums after pumping the brakes. Between each adjustment I pumped the brake pedal to re-center the shoes to the drums. If there was no contact after pumping the brake, I did it again. When I was done, the rear brakes came to life.If your rear drum brakes are severely out of adjustment, they are likely doing very little to nothing. In my case, until the rear brake shoe adjustment, the front brakes were doing all the work. After the 18-20 cycle adjustment process of my rear brake shoes, my motor home braked so much better with greatly reduced stopping distances. Driving in mountains and canyons went from terrorizing to secure driving. Needless to say, the company that performed the recall failed to adjust the rear drum brakes before sending me off.Oh yes, the parking brake came to life as well.

For some undisclosed reason (OK Old Age and Honesty Prevails) my E-Series Shop Manual is at home and my wife's Corolla manual is in the coach... I'll look when I get home, but comparing pix of rear drums on BatAuto, I'll give better than even odds that the "Full Floating" Rear Axle Shafts and the Hubs/Bearings do NOT need to be dismantled to get the Drums off. I can go into details of what has to happen if they DO, but other than handling bigger fasteners and heavier parts if they DON'T, rear brake work on E-350 DRW is no more complex than on most cars with rear drums.

2002 E350 Parking Brake | Good Sam Community

j-d
Explorer II
Oct 16, 2017
E350 didn't get rear wheel disc brakes till long after E450 came out with them. My RockAuto parts list shows this DRUM for 2002 E350 V10 with Dual Rear Wheels.

That would be Shoe Replacement/Adjustment and I'd install new Cylinders and Hardware Kit. Some require pulling the axle shafts, dismantling the bearings, and others the drum just slides off the wheel studs.

Find out what's there and let's see about adjusting what's there first. Ron has very good adjustment notes.
ron_dittmer
Explorer II
Oct 16, 2017
I am not 100% certain on the 2002 model year E350, but....

For model year 2007, that special parking brake is attached to the drive shaft directly behind the transmission, but ONLY THE E450 cutaway has it. The E350 cutaway has rear disk brakes like many cars with the parking brake being a miniature drum brake inside the hat portion of the brake rotor. Any repairs to it should cost a little more than a car. A $2200 quote is a snow job.

Driving 5 miles in town should not ruin the parking brake. A worst case scenario would be that the drum portion and miniature brake shoes formed a glaze which could easily be cleaned off using sand paper to provide better gripping power. A mechanic would have to remove the brake rotors which involves a cotter pin and wheel bearings, but that should cost around 2 hours of labor, not 20 hours of labor, hence $2200 is a rip off.

If doing that, I advise to pay a little extra to have the rear grease seals replaced and the rear wheel bearings packed with more grease. Grease seals might run $10 a piece. A mechanic with integrity might charge an extra $50 to do that for both wheels.

As the previous reply suggested, I wonder if the parking brake cable mechanism needs lubricating, maybe also adjusting so the parking brake pedal is more effective.

Doing a quick search for clarification, I found this diagram of a miniature drum-&-shoe parking brake system inside rear disk brakes for a typical car. The E350 is similar.

Here is a grease seal which costs maybe $6 at an Autozone.
Cougarnewbie
Explorer
Oct 16, 2017
My F-350 would not hold. Turned out to be the ratchet assembly at the pedal. It would ratchet but not pull the cable. Soaked the whole assembly with wd-40,put down a towel, Pump the pedal several times and spray it again. My park brake works every time. Cost $0

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