2002 E350 Parking Brake

fourthclassC wrote:

Parking brake adjustment is with star wheel inside rotor. Accessed from back side. No axle removal needed. you were lied to.

Assuming it is a standard drum brake (and all indications point to that), the only way to adjust the parking brake is to shorten the cable. The star wheel adjust BOTH the parking brake and the "main" rear brake.

ANY decent garage can check the brake drums/shoes for excessive wear and make the proper adjustments. Inspection and adjustment should be <$100

The most common problem with parking brakes is that the mechanical cable seizes up from lack of use. The cable can be freed up with some effort, but the cable will seize up again unless it is used on a regular basis.

Glad you have brake experience. Chock both front wheels both ways, loosen the lug nuts then jack and block it up or use jack stands. Look for traces of heat damage from dragging the brakes in parking mode. In addition to heat damage to drum and pads, the springs could have lost tension and the cylinders could be leaky or stuck.

We bought a Class C that was on an older E350. Didn't seem the rear brakes were doing much, a lot like Ron described above. Had to pull the axles. When we got in, it was clear that it'd had a full rear brake job, at least new shoes and drums re-surfaced. Lathe marks were STILL on the drum surfaces!!! The wheel cylinders had stuck so hard, the brakes couldn't apply, hadn't worked for years.

You could make a major improvement in this RV's brakes...

Although $2,200 sounds quite high, it's probably more work than the simple adjustment . If....IF it's a removable drum it's not that bad to take apart and replace the shoes etc. If it's one piece, then yes it's more work due to the floating axle and the need to remove the axles etc. The reason I say it's more than a simple adjustment, is because of the circumstances. You stated it was driven with the parking brake engaged, when I was running a service department at a Ford dealer I would never had suggested simply adjusting the parking brake after that scenario. You cannot see how much heat and damage was done without taking it apart and inspecting the linings and drums. I would also suggest taking it to a Ford dealer or local truck shop, but I would fully expect a complete tear-down and most likely a lining replacement at best. Good Luck !

hr_sea wrote:
Thanks for the replies everybody! I'll be driving out to see the Minnie this coming weekend. I've done many brake jobs before so I'm comfortable with working on it as long as I'm not pulling axle shafts out of the housing.

That year should not require removing the hubs/axles to remove the drum, it should be outboard.

Thanks for the replies everybody! I'll be driving out to see the Minnie this coming weekend. I've done many brake jobs before so I'm comfortable with working on it as long as I'm not pulling axle shafts out of the housing.

I see you are in Seattle. If you don't want to mess with it, take it to Les Schwab. They will quote you a fair price

Just went through a similiar situation. 2003 E350 (winnebago Mini 24V)

Parking brake adjustment is with star wheel inside rotor. Accessed from back side. No axle removal needed. you were lied to.

One side is easy the other (drivers side must have cable removed to adjust)

hr_sea wrote:
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.

IMHO the problem was taking it to an RV dealer for brake work.

Take to your local Ford store or any place that does a lot of trucks and see what they say.

I’ll bet the story, and price, is a lot different.

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.

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.