Emergency Brake stiff

[Gabbi]

The emergency brake pedal works but is very stiff on my '97 Concourse with 6.8L Triton V10 gas engine. Any idea(s) on how to lossen it up ? Thanks

[Blue~Go]

I don't know how stiff "stiff" is on your parking brake, but I would call mine just fine but you do have to give the pedal a push. It's not super light like the hand brake in a small car. But on the other hand it doesn't feel like it's not working correctly (okay, super subjective sorry).

I forget where you are, but back when I lived in snow country if we used our parking brakes in the winter they would always get stuck or stiff because the cable (out back) would jam up with salt and crud and then you'd have to replace the cable or whatever. Carried a wheel chock instead and saved parking brake use for summer

My Concourse has never seen snow country, so I'm curious if anyone else up north has had an issue (if you are up north?).

AFAIK the parking brake uses one of the rear drums ('97 will have rear drums). I can't remember but there might be smaller set of shoes or it might use the regular ones? But I don't even know if it's a cable or hydraulic? At least we don't have the shaft brake of the E-450 in this year range (ugh), so that's a good thing.

Not sure how the system changed when rear discs came in 1999.

I bet someone here knows and we can both learn something.

[Manitou]

Mine was really tough too. I was worried I was going to break something. Turned out the mechanism in the rear was a bit rusted up. Some wire wheeling and wd-40 and it was good to go again.

[Gabbi]

I just got my 1997 Concourse from Smitty and it lived its first 22 years in New England. That jibes with the theory regarding rust, salt and crud. The pedal can be pushed down, but requires a good bit of effort. Will try the WD40 and expect it to relax a bit. We now reside in South Carolina, so warmth down here should insure that condition does not worsen at a minimum. Thanks for your help !

[sm350bl]

1997 E350s should have drum service brakes in the back, So the parking brake is just going to be cables ran to an actuator at the bottom of the brake shoes to throw them out. We have gotten buses transferred to our location for my work that came in salted areas, most commonly we found that the cables corroded inside the cable housing causing them to get sticky or bind up. If I recall correctly the system is made up of three individual cables, one attached to the parking brake mechanism in the cab that runs down under the chassis on the left ( drivers side ) and attaches to a distribution bar ( the end of this cable should be threaded with a nut for adjusting slack) then one separate cable coming from each right and left side backing plate and meeting at the distribution bar. The cable coming from inside the cab to under the bus should be mostly running through a cable housing, as well as the cables coming from each right and left side backing plates. Shooting some lubricant into/ onto the cables as well as into the the bottom of the backing plates where the cables go through and then exorcising the parking brake couldn't hurt at all. If the problem persists, it would be time to remove the back wheels and get the drums off for visual inspection/direct lubrication if the brake shoe actuators are sticky or start looking/testing for sticky cable sections.