Their is a TSB or technical service bulletin that talks about premature wear of Ford rear brakes. They issued the notice specifically for 1992 through 1997 model year F250 and F350 pickup trucks and Econoline vans. It discusses the inspection of the rear emergency brake cables.
Note that model specific replacement parts are available at the end of this article. I know about this issue, because we have plenty of Ford trucks in our fleet both light and heavy duty. I’ve seen this damaged or seized cable problem on some of the newer models and the light duty F150 that doesn’t fall into the parameters of the bulletin.
Basically the technical service bulletin talks about inspecting the emergency brake cables making sure they are not chafing or rubbing on a frame rail.
Over time this could cause the emergency brake cable to either Bind or seize up completely. What happens is the sheathing wears and allows water and moisture in side. If the cable does start to bind you will not get a complete or full release of the rear brake shoes. This will cause not only premature wear of the rear brakes, but can also lower your fuel economy and cause a drifting or pulling condition while driving and braking.
Ford Brakes and Premature Wear
The telltale sign there’s a problem with your emergency brake cable, is the shoes need replacement sooner than expected. A set of ford rear brakes will normally last for an average of about 50,000 miles. If you replace them every 25,000 miles there could be a problem.
Keep in mind that driving habits and conditions play a big role on brake replacement intervals. This is just a rule of thumb. The best advice is when performing a rear brake job on any model, but especially Ford pickup trucks is to take a few extra minutes to make sure the emergency brake cable is not binding.
In the technical service bulletin they talk about re-routing the emergency brake cable away from any rubbing areas. You can also insulate the cable where it passes close to any frame rails.
There are several methods to accomplish this modification, but I prefer using either rubber hose secured with wire ties or even plastic conduit will work and hold up to rubbing and chafing. Driving around with your rear brakes applied for long periods of time can cause other problems with the truck. The excessive heat buildup can warp your rear drums and also cause a shutter when braking.
Ford pickup truck rear brakes and cables are available aftermarket. But our fleet service division has been getting these replacement e-brake cables directly from the Ford dealership parts department.
The replacement cables from Ford come with the insulated sections already installed so that no rubbing problem will cause a repeat failure. Although I have seen this problem often it is not exclusive to ford vehicles. Whenever you replace rear brakes take a few extra minutes and inspect the emergency brake operation to a sure your efforts of replacing rear brakes will last as long as they are supposed to.
Give this Ford brakes page a bookmark or share with a friend.
Another technical bulletin has been released on ford brakes. This next link takes you there and explains why you might see a Ford abs light on.
I have a section of the you fix cars website dedicated to common car problems and technical service bulletins. This next link takes you more ford auto repair news.
The best way to find out what this auto repair website is all about is on The YouFixCars.com Homepage. Here you will find out what information is covered and you can also learn more about asking car questions.