Explorer 8.8--swapped into Ranger, but now I need HELP with the parking brake cables

[compleckz]

truck is a 97 ranger super cab 4x4..

the axle is a 95+ disc brake explorer 8.8. it came with the left and right e-brake cables installed--so i was hoping i could just hook them up and have the parking brake work.

they fell into place almost perfectly, and attached to the existing 'middle' cable running from the cab to the front of the leaf spring. for those that dont know, this is a rear disc setup with the parking brake on the inside of the rotor hat-- drum-in-rotor.

the problem is when i engage the parking brake, the left side spring bottoms out, and the lever is fully engaged, before the right side even really begins to tension and the lever has barely budged.

it seems to me that the only way for this to work, would be for the left cable to be longer, and the middle cable to be shorter. i thought maybe the right side cable was stretched, so i got a new one and compared--the new one was slightly longer! i put it in anyways, just in case the old cable was stretching under the load or something.

SOOOO those who have done this swap, what did you do?

right side tensioned:

right side NOT tensioned:

left side tensioned:

left side NOT tensioned:

middle tensioned:

middle NOT tensioned:

 

[TireIron]

are the parking shoes assembled correctly? are they adjusted out correctly? It almost seems like the left side isn't adjusted out to the correct place and has too much pull in it. The left side pulls first and is supposed to stop first which then pulls on the right side.

It also looks like the middle cable is too loose. I've seen someone grab the cable bracket off an explorer and measure the distance from the axle to where the bracket mounts on the frame on the explorer and then mount the bracket at the same distance on the ranger and use that bracket instead of the one on the leaf spring. This placed the rear cables at the correct spot for the middle cable to work right.