Parking Brake Cable rusted out

[big max]

Pressed down hard on the park brake pedal and it went thump and wouldn't come back. Tracked the problem back to the cable anchor at the left rear brake drum. The cable had rusted out and snapped off at the connector that engages the brake actuator arm protruding out of the drum. The truck is a 2002, 2500HD Duramax with 55000 miles on it. Could have been a complete disaster if it had gone while parked on an incline with my 10,000 lb. fifth wheel attached. Has anyone else had this happen. I think this is a little more serious than the rusted out tailgate cable problem, as if it let go, it could cause a lot of damage and maybe death.

BigMax

[trbankii]

:eek: I know I keep an eye on such things on my two trucks, but they are 21 and 13 years old so I sort of expect some things to rust and wear and fatigue...

But a four year old vehicle having rust problems of that extent?

[big max]

trbankii,

It came as a bit of a shock to me also. If it can happen to one truck, I'm sure that it can happen to others also. I would suggest those with similar trucks go out and give a good hard press on their parking brake pedal. Better to have it break in the driveway that out on some hilly roadway or parking lot. The cable is sheathed in plastic and a few other spots are showing rust through the clear sheathing.

BigMax

[MikeT]

My 02 2500HD CC D/A has 103K miles on it and I'm still using the original parking brake. BTW, you indicated that you have drums on the rear. I thought all of the 02 models had disk brakes on the rear.

[YZF1R]

The parking brakes are drum type inside the rear disk.

Steve

[mark45678]

this is a problem with ALL GM trucks / SUV with drum disk combo ! My best advice is yours works use it once a month with out fail ! If you dont use it your going to with you had....... its not cheap or easy to fix !