jw11432

First, hello all, recently acquired a 96 f150, 4.9L 5 speed xl standard cab. plan on doing a restoration and fixin it up all pretty like, but before i can get it inspected, this parking brake issue has me scratching my head lol

so the problem is that when i acquired it, the only cables that were there (and still there) are the two rear cables coming from the drum brakes. so the equalizer and forward are missing. i managed to pick up an equalizer at the junk yard, but im finding that there is a whole mess of options regarding which cable is needed. pertinent information appears to include the following pertaining to my truck:

-manufactured 4/96
-117" wheelbase

seems like there are setups that include an intermediate and a front cable, and some that are just one big piece, from the pedal all the way to the equalizer, and then there are 3 or 4 different length cables available, so hopefully this explains why im confused. haynes manual is no help at all, so i figured there'd be some guys who would know a bit more about this specifically. much thanks in advance!

jw11432

well this is the second forum i came to..guess parking brake mechanisms aren't a specialty here either.

Fortunately, I got it fixed. Despite being a 96, and body sticker and vin confirming the same, the cable that worked was for a 95 model. It also used both a front and an intermediate cable. Don't know why, but in case anyone else runs into this trouble, this may prove to help them. I got my front cable from O'Reillys, and already had the intermediate cable, it was hiding in the tool box.

Ryano

thanks JW!

Marc D

I'm glad you solved your problem and shared the solution. As you discovered, there are so many options that affect correct information on a project like yours, offering information is limited, because no one wants to give you bad info. Don't let that stop you from asking questions in the future.