2004 1500 parking brake won’t engage

Dave198819881988 · January 4, 2019

2004 Silverado 1500. I realized that my parking brake was not working. when I took the rotor off the adjuster was completely rusted and not able to turn. the cables don’t have any slack. I’m not sure how to go about this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

casey.mikl · January 4, 2019

I would replace everything or just remove them all together. I removed my parking brake assemblies because they were also rusted out

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davester · January 5, 2019

In some/many? jurisdictions, they may be required to be installed and functional, as they are considered "emergency brakes".

The cables get slack from the pedal mechanism in the cab. There's a slip-joint where the cable runs along the frame on the driver's side, you need to pry it apart a bit, pull hard on the cable coming out of the cab (it's on a spring-mechanism, some more will come out), and then your friend can disconnect the cables.

It's possible to separate and reconnect them by yourself, but it involves a lot of swearing and pinched fingers.

I used a pair of vise-grips, clamped around the cable (so, not pinching the cable), with the sides of it pressing against that slip-joint, and then pulling on the vise-grips. It doesn't come off (unless you do something to open the vise-grips) and doesn't damage the cable this way.