2001 Park Ave - Parking Brake Pedal Mechanism / Assembly Issue & Reassembly

[m002922]

Long story long, one of these (obviously fairly rusted) . . . New item by D. H.

broke when I was applying the parking brake. That sudden snapping allowed the pedal to slam all the way down, somehow locking it in the down position (but without the emergency brakes applied, as the cables were released when the connector snapped).

I was able to get the parking brake pedal back up, but then it was stuck in the up position.

I've pulled the parking brake pedal assembly from the car, and it moves freely without the cable to the back of the car providing any resistance.

There is a spring that mounts to the bracket (it goes through the hole in the bracket - you can see the hole in the portion of the picture circled in red), than then attaches to the "toothed" mechanism (circled in yellow). (The spring isn't pictures, but I can provide that for you if it helps).

New item by D. H.

photos.app.goo.gl

The spring was in there when I took it out, but it didn't seem to be doing what it was supposed to be doing (that is, manipulating the piece of the mechanism circled in yellow) - the pedal would not release.

I've looked for a picture of a properly working 2001 park avenue brake pedal assembly - can't find one (there isn't one available on ebay right now). I don't have a manual (I pulled a picture from somewhere or the parking brake mechanism in general, but it doesn't have a close / specific picture of the pedal assembly).

I'm not sure if something broke off of the assembly (it seems no), or if the spring just got out of position (by virtue of the pedal completely slamming down) and I can't figure out how to put it back, etc. etc.

Anyone have an image of their properly assembled parking break pedal assembly?

Or have any other ideas?

 

[m002922]

Hmmm . . . nobody seems to have any experience with this or any ideas . . . guess I'll just have to find a new mechanism to buy and compare to determine the issue.

Here's a picture of the spring if anyone is curious:

New item by D. H.

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[m002922]

So, in case anyone is curious, I think my issue with the parking brake assembly was that it will only function properly when the cable has some tension on it. Not realizing that, I thought the assembly was broken.

I got a known working assembly and compared it to mine. No difference. The known working assembly started behaving the same as mine - getting locked into positions. That's when I tried just putting some tension on the cable, and with that it started working.

Also when I put the known working assembly into the car, it wouldn't fully depress at first, making me think there might be an issue. But I noticed that as I was pushing the pedal the assembly was "ratcheting" (I could hear it, and I had seen it do this outside the car) - and after a few pushes (very short pushes - like an inch before it stopped) the pedal started working properly. I think the ratcheting was creating initial tension on the cable so the assembly would work.

Also, I bought Dorman 21126 Emergency Brake Cable connectors, which are a little confusing. It comes with connectors that looked like the original ones on my car, but were obviously too small for the larger cable ends I had. That's when I realized that the big silver thing in the package - which my car originally did not use - worked the same way, and would join my cable ends.

If you're pulling your system apart I highly recommend those newer style cable joiners - easier to manipulate than the old ones, and I doubt you'll ever see a failure of one of those, as they're very meaty compared to the old ones (which, in fairness, made it 24 years). The old ones - if in good shape - can be saved and reused by simply bending the tabs that hold the cables in, removing the cable ends, and then when you want to reuse them you putting in the cables and re-bend the tabs. So if yours are in good shape, go ahead and try to save them and reuse them. What caused my failure in the first place was one of those cable joiners rusting and finally failing (it was also back by the exhaust, so it was constantly going through heating and cooling cycles).

 

[Ultra Ego]

Good info. Thanks for reporting back.