Hi I have an 84 B150 Van-Shorty. Recently the parking brake light stays on. It seems to have more travel to the floor in the brake pedal too. It has gone off previously, but now it is back on. Is this dangerous?

About a few thousand miles ago I had a caliper seize up and made the disk hot and I had to have it replaced. Just mentioning that in case it might lead to a solution.

Could this be a simple brake fluid issue? Need to bleed?
Or maybe the proportioning valve is bad or clogged?

Anyone ever experience this.
I love this van!!!
Any ideas or insight is appreciated. I may need to take on a long trip tomorrow AM.
thanks

 

The parking brake could need adjustment and work on the return springs. If it is like my 1991 van there will be a spot midway down the van where the single cable splits into two. You can pick up slack in the cables there. Even doing that, I have to reach under the dash and shove the cable back about 1/2" after I use it to get the light to turn off. The other spot to adjust the back brakes is in the drums, get that sorted out before you adjust the cable in the middle.

If you haven't flushed the brake lines you may as well do it. Keep bleeding until you get new fluid coming out, it could take a few quarts.

Steve

 

Your parking brake is mechanical and has nothing to do with the hydraulic brake system. The parking brake is essentially a cable that engages an actuator arm which pushes a drum shoe against the brake drum.

The sensor for the parking brake light is very finicky. Just verify the parking brake engages and disengages properly (lift the rear and turn the wheel to check drag) on both sides.

You may find that replacing the parking brake cables is necessary since they stretch and bind over time.. That resolved a variety of parking brake issues I had.

 

BTW, even after replacing cables/adusting the brake, my parking brake light stays on. I actually disconnected the wire to it (which I believe is just a ground). The old sensor was distorted and eventually broke (which can easily happen if the parkign brake pedal is pushed all the way to the floor - i.e. not adjusted properly/cables stretched, it should engage before bottoming out). I got a new sensor but havent gotten around to installing it.

 

Thank you all very much for your replies. A lot of points to test here. My weekend will be busy.

 

I forgot to mention, i put some wd40 on the mechanical areas underneath and then kinda worked that brakeline a little bit. Then stepped really hard on the break. All is fine so far. We'll see!