2002 E350 Parking Brake

[hr_sea]

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.

[theoldwizard1]

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.

[j-d]

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...

[blownstang01]

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 !

[rhagfo]

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.

[hr_sea]

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.

[ol__yeller]

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

[fourthclassC]

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)

[JaxDad]

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.

[j-d]

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.

[ron_dittmer]

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.

[j-d]

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]

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]

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