I have a weird problem that seems to be e-brake related but I'm not sure.

Sometimes when I apply the brakes there is a strange crackling sound coming from the driver rear wheel area. It's not rythmic nor does it do it all the time. It seems to be temperature/humidity related. My brakes were re-done about 3k miles ago on all 4 wheels and work smooth as silk so no issue there it seems. I also checked the lug nuts and caliper bolts with a torque wrench and they are fine.

One thing I noticed today while trying to figure this one out was when I apply the emergency brake the e-brake light does not come on. In further playing around with this I also discovered that the e-brake don't work very well going forward but stops like the devil when going in reverse. This may be a coincidence with the crackling noise but it obviously is an e-brake adjustment issue as well.

I have 4 wheel disks and the e-brake is a drum integrated into the inside of the rear rotor.

So, I take the wheel and caliper off and I go to try and get the rotor off and holy cow, it won't come off. No way, no how. Seen drums do this before but not rotors, but that's another issue.

So, before I tear into this and make a big mess and possibly break something (like my knuckes getting the rotor off) I figure I'd ask if any of you guys seen this issue before with the crackling noise and if you guys have the proper procedure for adjusting the e-brake on the 4-wheel disk F-150's.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Ron

 

Well, my 'crackling' problem was a bad rear u-joint. So much for that. Had both of them replaced with Moog u-joints that have zerk fittings on them... That problem is solved.

However, to all those with rear disks, please read...

I got the rotors off to find that the whole parking brake drum and mechanism was rust-city. I mean, everything was coated in thick rust. The drum on one side had no wear on it from the pad while the other was worn at an angle. The inside of the drum was poliched smooth and the outside of it, toward the backing plate, had about a 1/16" of rust. The adjusters were totally frozen with rust. The brake shoes had all kinds of weird wear marks on them, very uneven wear marks. That's why I could not get the rotors off. I finally used a big-*** 'Wonder Bar" and that did it, but not before trashing the brake shoes.

So, new parking brake shoes at $95 for 4 of them was necessary. I bought new rotors as well, $65 each. And, as you might guess, Ford does not sell any of the brake hardware for the parking brake. Either you buy shoes for both wheels or they will sell you the backing plate with all the parking brake parts already on it for about $100 a wheel. What a joke.

So, I doctored the rusted adjusters to physically shorten them since the adjusting wheels are frozen. Soaked all the parts overnight in liquid wrench, covered everything with a thin coat of brake grease and put it all back together. The parking brake now works fine in forward as well as reverse. The light still don't go on though. Anyone know where the switch is for the parking brake light ? The bulb is fine since it comes on when you first turn on the ignition.

Anyway you guys with rear disks should at least inspect the inside of the drums once in a while to be sure you didn't have a rust buildup like mine. If I would have done that and cleaned it out once a year over the last 100,000 miles/4 years I probably would have not had the problems I've had with this. Seems like the rust just kept building up until it hit the shoes. Then a combination of rust and brake dust kept building up until the whole thing was a total mess, ruining both the drums and shoes.

So, 2 problems solved but I need to get some adjusters from a wrecked 150 in a junk yard to be able to adjust the parking brake.

So much to do and so little time...