Hi all,
New to the forum and have a question. First of all, I drove about 10 miles to work this morning (half interstate and half surface streets), with my damn parking brake on. I guess I was real tired and out of it. Anyway, once I got to work and realized it, I drove around without braking for about 10 minutes to let the rotors cool off. I haven't had time, of course, to pull the tires off and inspect the rotors yet, but from what I could see, they don't look to be grooved or glaxed, really.

My concerns are:
1. The rotors might have to be turned now
2. I wore down the pads (I'll know once I can check).
3. I might have damaged the wheel bearings due to heat build up

Also, I noticed that applying the parking brake now brings the pedal further to the floorboard than before, until it engages. I suspect this is because I wore down the pads a bit.

I would appreciate any comments or observations. Let me know if my assessments make sense to you. Thanks!

 

Forstr,

You probably did not damage any rotors or wheel bearings. Your parking brake only acts on your rear wheels.

You did not identify your truck, but if it has rear drums, you might have glazed the shoes a little, but possibly not. If they are drums, you can try to adjust them by driving a few feet in reverse and then braking firmly with the regular brake pedal. Repeat this two or three times (in a safe place please).

If you have rear discs, they still have a small drum and shoe setup inside the hub which serves as the parking brake. In this case you probably did no damage at all to your regular brakes. You might possibly have glazed the parking brake shoes, but I'm not sure if it would be a problem worth losing much sleep over.

SM

 

Yeah, it's a 2000 4X4 w/ discs out back. I've had it for about 1.5 yrs, and it doesn't see the bad stuff as much as my old yoto, so I haven't had the opportunity to do any work on it yet. That being the case, I was not aware of the "little drum" parking brake. I assumed that the parking brake engaged the pads/rotors.

Come to think of it, I've been meaning to get a Chilton's for this thing...

 

No, the parking brake engages a small set of shoes that ride inside the "hat" portion of the rear disc/drum assembly. You probably glazed (and wore) the shoes a bit (hence the greater pedal travel). The parking brake is not self-adjusting. You may want to remove the rotor and inspect the shoes, but I would not bother unless you heard a metal-on-metal noise when it was engaged and you were driving. There is a small rubber plug in the bottom of the backing plate. Remove that plug and adjust the star wheels evenly on both sides of the truck (I'd try 3 or 4 clicks on the adjuster to start) then try it out. If it needs more, give it more. Do not let them drag as they may heat up and try to lock up.

-Joe