adjusting the parking brake on 2008 E450
I noticed that my parking brake is not holding well. When I park and set the foot brake it will still roll. I can set my brake put it in drive and my MH will move with little resistance. Is there an a...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
If the system is working correctly, you leave the wheels on to make the adjustments.
Back up the RV (or any car with drum brakes) while lightly applying the brakes. If the drum brakes need adjusting, the brakes should tighten up while backing up.
If you do not typically do a lot of backing up, you might need to back up something like 100 feet to adjust them enough. So find a large parking lot - Wal Mart or Home Depot or a empty mall. Lightly give it gas, and lightly apply the brake with the left foot, and go backwards about 50 feet, then forwards a ways to test the brakes. Your tires are about 33" tall, and would travel about 8 feet per revolution, so 50' backwards is about 5 turns, giving at least 4 trys to the automatic adjusters to tighten the brake adjustment screw.
Also if you climb under the RV and look up at the parking brake cable, you might find a slack adjuster. With the RV in park (and engine off) release the parking brake and see if you can adjust that nut by hand. It might have a locking nut that you would need a wrench to separate them, but then adjust by hand a couple of turns. You do not want it to tight, or it might not fully release when you let the brakes off. I would give it a maximum of 4 turns, then try it out. If it is still loose, give it a maximum of 2 more turns (for a total of 6 turns on the rod). Any more and you might be making it so tight that the brakes might stay applied while driving.
Fred.
If the system is working correctly, you leave the wheels on to make the adjustments.
Back up the RV (or any car with drum brakes) while lightly applying the brakes. If the drum brakes need adjusting, the brakes should tighten up while backing up.
If you do not typically do a lot of backing up, you might need to back up something like 100 feet to adjust them enough. So find a large parking lot - Wal Mart or Home Depot or a empty mall. Lightly give it gas, and lightly apply the brake with the left foot, and go backwards about 50 feet, then forwards a ways to test the brakes. Your tires are about 33" tall, and would travel about 8 feet per revolution, so 50' backwards is about 5 turns, giving at least 4 trys to the automatic adjusters to tighten the brake adjustment screw.
Also if you climb under the RV and look up at the parking brake cable, you might find a slack adjuster. With the RV in park (and engine off) release the parking brake and see if you can adjust that nut by hand. It might have a locking nut that you would need a wrench to separate them, but then adjust by hand a couple of turns. You do not want it to tight, or it might not fully release when you let the brakes off. I would give it a maximum of 4 turns, then try it out. If it is still loose, give it a maximum of 2 more turns (for a total of 6 turns on the rod). Any more and you might be making it so tight that the brakes might stay applied while driving.
Fred.
