Frozen/Stuck Parking/Emergency Brake

[travcojim]

Sent: 3/18/2007

Hello,
  Been lurking around the Winne site for years, I own a 67 Travco that is of course on the Dodge frame and most of the other items are close, so I learn a lot from the posts on here.  Had a great 71 back years ago, but my question is, I parked my Travco a few weeks ago and set the parking brake when I was getting it level on my land where I am going to keep it for the summer, so after getting it lever I decided to move it, of course its never good enough to leave it in one place.  But I went to move it and it would not budge.  I get a whine from the tranny, (727 with a 440)  I finally traced the trouble to the emergency brake being locked on.  Everything as far as engine and tranny are mostly new, there is about 13,000 miles on it all.  So my question is how do I get it to turn lose of the driveshaft.  This is the brake that is on the end of the Transmission.  I have banged on it with a hammer and nothing.  Is there a method to get it unstuck. 

[Cooneytoones]

Sent: 3/18/2007

TravcoJim........

It is a problem that almost all of the tranny parking brakes go through...caused by sitting too long........I had to disconnect the cable at the little drum at the end of the drive shaft  .....it is held in place by a tensioning nut, similar to a throttle cable or choke cable on a lawn mower. A fork that holds a little ball at the end of the cable, once the cable is taken off the fork You should be able to move the lever by hand or with a screwdriver.......once you have it off spray the inside of the drum with some WD 40 (use a lot) or what ever you use, and try and push the fork forward this should release the brake shoes holding the transmission.....then you can move the rig... If not,  ....those cables run right past the exaust and get all rusted & gunked up inside, it is almost ....now I said, almost impossible to get the old cable to work again... a little on that later....

If this does not work you will have to drop the drive shaft at the end of the transmission and remove the drum.....the little pads are replaceable, but you have to have them with you at the auto parts store in order to match them....The only place to find a new/used cable is at a junk yard from an old truck, several will match only problem, the cable may be in the same shape as yours in in, or will be in the same shape soon..... a custom motorcycle shop that makes new cables is the other place to try but this could be costly... you can bring them the old one, they may be able to match the balls on the ends to make you a new one......

The other thing to try is, once you have the cable removed, try a cable I-V ....take a plastic sandwich baggie, 1/2 fill it with a little machine oil (3 in one works good)
tie the baggie on the end of the cable with twist ties, hang the cable for a day or more and let gravity try and get the old cable loose also remove the baggie and spray daily with a pentrating oil before hooking the I-V back up...It took a week of doing this with mine,  finally dripped all the way through the cable housing......put something under the cable cause some oil will leak out of the bag and down the outside of the cable housing spilling on the ground......I used a five gallon bucket, and then reused the oil from the bucket...I put a pair of vise grips on the bottom end this help keep the cable as straight  as possible, I used the vise grips to pull on the cable little by little.....just don't break the ball off the cable or you will need a new one for sure.......Also, the all the parts and stuff insde the brake drum are very hard to find, don't loose any....Let us know how you make out.

Good Luck 
Timmy

[denisondc]

Sent: 3/18/2007

Where did you bang on it with the hammer? Its inevitable that cable will become stiff from age and lack of use. On the front lower surface of the brake assembly there is (or once was) an access plate held on with 2 bolts. By front I mean the part of this assembly toward the tranny. Behind it you will see the actuator arm that the cable pulls. There should be enough room to get a large screwdriver in there, to bear against the actuator arm. You hammer on the other end of the screwdriver to force the actuator arm back. This may be easy or near impossible - depending on how badly stuck the handbrake cable is. I would hope your cable would still be moveable, as its only been weeks, not years, since you tightened that handbrake.
All too often people dont tighten it enough to prevent being able to drive away with the handbrake on. This burns out the shoes of course, and doesnt do the drum any good either.
If you are able to force it free, I would advise getting a new handbrake cable while you still have the old one as a pattern, or at least remove your cable, soak it in solvent, exercise it to and fro, and relube it.
I paid about $80 for my new one over a dozen years ago, and have harvested another useable one from the donor-bago of slantsixness. ('Cause I have 2 winnies that take that same cable.) With the new cable it would also be a good idea to drop the driveshaft, unbolt the drum, and free up the adjuster mechanism, & maybe get the shoes relined. I think the shoes and drum are out-of-stock generally, so take care of the old parts. While the drum is off would be a good time to put a new seal on the output shaft of the tranny. This will keep ATF from oozing onto the handbrake shoes. Be very careful if you remove the locating pin that sticks out from the castings on the top of the tranny. It is held in place by a small steel pin at right angles to it. If you hammer too hard trying to drive that sideways pin out of the aluminum; you will snap off the casting on the tranmission. I would describe the aluminum as being 'fragile'.
One of these days I will try drilling that sideways pin out of my spare transmission. I know the larger pin that keeps the brake backing plate from turning is hardened steel, but I hope the smaller pin is not.

[travcojim]

Sent: 3/18/2007

I just banged on the small drum just to see if that would do any good or not.  All I got was some brakedust, I am going out to it tomorrow so I will see what I can come up with.

[Slantsixness]

Sent: 3/18/2007 3:59 PM

Remove the parking brake cable.  put the Travco in gear, reverse, then forward... it'll brake free. the shoes are probably stuck to the drum, that's all... but the cable must be off the arm and tube to do this.
Make sure it broke free, by ensuring that the cable arm came back to the released position (towards the passenger side of the rig, viewed through the little window you take the cable off with.

Soak the cable, like Dave said to... it works.

[travcojim]

Sent: 4/3/2007 12:14 PM

Thanks for all the help.  I am thinking it might be something else now, I removed the cable and the brake seemed to be released, but I am still not moving, I can get it to rock, it seems to want to move just a few inches when I put it into gear,  I hear a loud clunk coming from what seems to be the rear end.  I looked underneath while I had someone put it into gear and give it some gas and the driveshaft seemed to want to move, it just appeared to be something stopping it somewhere.  Almost like I was up against a curb or something.  It has that feel to it, so this coming weekend I am crawling back under and see if I can spot something that looks out of whack.  The rear end was rebuilt a few years back, so I pretty sure its not that, but you never know.

[denisondc]

Sent: 4/3/2007

By removing the 4 nuts that hold the final U-joint to the yoke on the pinion shaft you could pull/lever the driveshaft off of the differential - and see if you can turn the driveshaft by hand (with the parking brake off), or with one side of the rear axle jacked up a little, to turn the rear wheels. Of course use plenty of chocks to keep it from rolling over you. I had the center support bearing of the driveshaft go bad suddenly. I was moving, so it just shredded the rubber matrix the bearing was in. With a siezed center support bearing I dont know if the driveshaft would turn with the RV standing still.

[brians69d24]

Sent: 4/3/2007

Could your regular brakes be stuck on?
brian

[travcojim]

Sent: 4/3/2007

Not the regualr brakes stuck on, I was able to hit the brakes while I was rocking it and it stopped it. so its not that.
  I do get a whine in the tranny like its spinning but just not turning, or like I said, something is locked somewhere.
  I will try jacking it up a few inches and see what that does.

[brians69d24]

Sent: 4/3/2007

I assume that there is sufficient tranny fluid.....

[travcojim]

Sent: 4/3/2007

tranny fluid is full

[travcojim]

I think it is the park pawl, or pin, may be bent, I have not had the time to drop the tranny pan and look into that, as soon as it cools down here I am going to do that.  I had a mopar guy tell me that I may have bent it when I put it into park before it came to a complete stop.  Updates to come I hope