How do I adjust the parking brake cable tension?
I just had the brake shoes & cylinders replaced on the truck. Prior to the mechanic doing the brake job the parking brake worked fine. Now the PB peddle depresses nearly to the floor just taking up cable slack and does not return back up when the release is pulled.
If the release is pulled and the peddle is manually pulled back up, cable can be easily pulled to the rear of the truck until it stops moving. At that point there is enough slack in the cable so that it hangs down in the center about 5 inches - too much slack to actuate the parking brakes.
My mechanic is stumped. Everything to the rear seems to be fine (he removed the rear drums and inspected everything was connected correctly).
Is this some sort of self-adjusting mechanism up front? It is difficult to view the actuation of the PB peddle but it looks like it is actuated by something pushing tension out of the cable up behind the peddle pivot. How does one adjust or otherwise correct this?

 

I was hoping that some generous ford-proficient mechanic or other expert finds this forum a place to hang out and help. I thought I described my problem pretty well but no responses so far. Is the resetting of a self-adjusting parking brake so obscure that no one knows what to do? I'm frightened to take it to a professional here in Phoenix, AZ for fear they know nothing about the brake peddle either and I'll spend additional hundreds without resolution. Come on folks, I need help here.