I just got an 89 ram 350 15 seater... the only problem with it, is the parking brake will not engage. the cables move freely. the adjuster thats underneath the van, the nut is stuck on there. I put about a gallon of wd-40, pb blaster, baking soda and vinegar, i even sat a lighter on it for several minutes and it is stuck. I popped one of the back wheels off... the brakes are beyond my scope of knowledge. the brakes when applied work as they should. but the lever that the parking brake cable doesnt move. the cable pulls, but stops when the parking brake gets to the floor. I tried poking at the lever to get it to move, but didnt force it too much because I dont know what i'm doing with that. my guess is...hopefully....its just that stuck nut on the adjuster, there seems to be a lot of slack in the cable. but shouldnt the lever have moved from prodding at it? any other ideas on how to get that nut unstuck or anything other advice on what i should look at? i cant get the van registered until i get this fixed. I even thought it would be a 20 dollar job at a mechanic and this guy tried bending me over and saying the cable was seized and i need all new brakes to go with it. and he was able to tell without even looking at it. he must be magic.

 

If you have access to torches you can heat the nut until it's red hot and then turn it. Your other option is to replace the brake cable assembly.

 

I once needed to adjust that nut and found it frozen. Moderate attempts with penetrates and torque failed.

Rather than risk breaking it, I wound up crimping 2 3/16 diameter s hooks around the connection to remove the slop.

A couple years later when I swapped rear axles I managed to get the nut to move after wirewheeling the **** out of the bolt and nut and more PB blaster, and a large pair of vice grips clamped on the bolt portion. I then chased crushed with a tap and dye.

You can pull down on the cable and the cable slides inside the cable sheath leading to the drum brakes, right?

 

... i could use a torch, but I don't know how to do that and feel safe at the same time, seeming there's fuel line not too far away from it. the cables going to the wheels are free, they move in and out when I pull on them. I've tried a large pair of vice grips, but they keep slipping, no matter how tight I try to get them on there. landyacht, I'm trying to imagine what you are saying about the s hooks but I'm not certain what you mean. my next idea is to just cut the bolt right under the nut, clean up the threads and just stick a new nut on whats left of the bolt.

 

Since I could not move the nut, I imagined what If I could just Grind out some washers from O shaped to U so I could slide them in behind the nut taking out the slack in the cable.

This is basically what I did with the S hooks, but I only used half the S hook and bent it shut so It could not fall off.

It was that way for years without issue.

Sorry, I don't have a pic.

 

Gotchya. Thanks for the tip, and it seems like the easiest solution. Hopefully I can get that done today!

 

Problem solved. I used lock washers. Took the assembly apart and bent out the washers to fit around the cable and slid them up to the nut. I put the whole pack of washers to get the brake to do anything. I parked it on a hill to try it out and it slipped a little, so I jammed the brake down a few times, in case the problem was just that it hasnt been used in a while, and it worked. I fixed a problem a mechanic quoted at being 600 bucks for $1.04.

 

Lock washers. Good Idea.

Don't you just love the easy fixes?

There are start adjusters inside the drum too. Sometimes these do not self adjust as designed.