Parking Brake Pedal Problems, Looking For Help!!

[97Ranger3.0]

Looking for advice on my parking brake pedal assembly issue for my 97 Ranger. Recently, I noticed that my parking brake pedal skips so I don't have a functional parking brake anymore. When you press in the pedal and get a little bit of tension on the cables, it suddenly skips and pulls your foot practically to the floor, so the parking brake doesn't actually engage. Also, when this happens the parking brake doesn't want to release and I have to push up on the pedal with my foot while I pull the release lever. I snapped some pictures of my pedal assembly compared to my brother's Ranger's assembly and noticed this.

The pedal itself on my truck is a little closer to the trim to the left of it than his, like its cocked at an angle, and the lever that clicks on the teeth as you push the pedal in is very cocked.

If you can't really see it in that first picture, it's more noticeable as you push the parking brake pedal in.

Also, when the release is pulled it often either doesn't release at all, or doesn't release fully. When it doesn't release fully, the lever looks like this.

I can pry it back to fully release the pedal pretty easily though.

For reference, these are pictures of the parking brake in my brother's 96 Ranger. Notice how the lever sits nice and straight even as the pedal is engaged.

And his when it's released looks like this.

I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem or a similar problem before, and how to fix it? I don't see anything else wrong except for the misalignment with the pedal and the lever so I'm not sure what the cause of that is and how to fix it. I'm hoping I might be able to fix it without having to remove it and hoping that I don't just have to replace the whole unit. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[Curious Hound]

My guess is.... It's " wore slap out"

The pivot pin and hole are probably severely worn and allowing the misalignment. I would replace the pedal assembly. You can get one from a junkyard. I'm not sure who to order a new one from - maybe Rock Auto or LMC truck.

Mine failed on another truck I had years ago. Truck was not in gear and was parked on a gentle slope. While I was waiting for my dinner at Cracker Barrel, I heard them call the owner of my truck to go to the hostess stand. There they informed me that my truck had rolled across the parking lot and damaged a Mitsubishi Galant. That was an expensive evening at Cracker Barrel. $1600 damage to the Galant. Just a few light scratches to my F150.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I agree with EricB. If it has a bushing you might be able to replace the bushing, but it will have to come out anyway.

 

[97Ranger3.0]

Okay, thanks for your input guys! I'll just suck it up and pull the unit out when I have time next and see if its repairable or just needs to be replaced. What's weird is I had a similar problem on my last Ranger, a 94. But my brother hasn't had this happen yet on either of the Rangers he has owned. Not sure why I have bad luck with these random things haha!

Also, does anyone know if these assemblies are interchangeable from different years? I found that you can buy them new, but most of them only list working for 98-03 or something along those lines. I just don't see Ford changing the parking brake assembly for only those few years. If I do have to buy one new it seems like it's going to be hard to source if not, or I'll just have to go junkyard hunting. Unfortunately a lot of the junkyards around me have scrapped a lot of these Rangers already! Parts are getting harder to find.

 

[Ranger850]

yours probably wares out faster, because you use it. most people never even use the parking brake.

 

[Denisefwd93]

when you do find one try and get one with the cable on it! It's a beach trying to send the new cable through, and if I remember right it's really difficult to get it into the mechanism. The way to find parts is online. Going to yards is old school hit and miss.

 

[97Ranger3.0]

yours probably wares out faster, because you use it. most people never even use the parking brake.

It's funny you say that, because I don't feel that I use it much more than anyone else would. I use it when I park on a steep incline, or if I ever get out of the truck while it's still running. My brother uses his e brake waaaaay more than me and hasn't had this problem in either of the Rangers he's had. He uses his parking brake literally every time he parks somewhere, even if it's not on a grade at all.

when you do find one try and get one with the cable on it! It's a beach trying to send the new cable through, and if I remember right it's really difficult to get it into the mechanism. The way to find parts is online. Going to yards is old school hit and miss.

I'm not finding any exact replacements online unfortunately. All the ones I'm finding are for newer Rangers and look quite a bit different. They do all include the cable though. Does anyone know the part number for the parking brake assembly for a 97, or if anything else is interchangeable? I'm assuming it's discontinued if I'm having this much trouble finding it.

I did remove the parking brake assembly from the truck. It's still hard to look at it to figure out what went wrong but I'm hoping that when I have a good one to compare it to that I will figure it out.