We have a 99 blazer and the other day we were driving and noticed that the park break light was on, which wqas weird bc i never use it. I tired to pull the leaver and nothing happened so i slowed down it went out. Later that day it came on again and so i tried the leaver and nothing happend so i pused the foot lever and tried to release it and the light still wnt go out. Nothing i do now will make it go out. Once in a while you can hear a grinding nosie as if its on. I tried taking the wheels off today t have a look and eerything looked fine to me. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what to do to fix it. The truc is getting hard to stop bc the pedal gets hard to push. Is there a way to unhook them and not interfer with the regular breaking system?

 

So you have verified that the parking brake is not dragging in the back? If so, your problem could be a faulty switch on the parking brake assembly.

 

when i checked it today i jacked it up and put it on with it in neutral and i could still turn the wheel but its not running totally free, theres a bit of drag.

 

Properly adjusted drum brakes WILL have a little, very little drag in free wheel. Does the parking brake work? Verfiy that the cable is attached to the parking break lever in the drum. You may or may not have automatic adjusting drums. If so backing up and hitting the brakes a few times will adjust them. If not then you have to do it the old fashioned way.

 

If it seems like there is excessive resistance at the wheel, then the parking brake may be partially engaged. This could be due to a problem at the parking brake lever inside the cab, with the cable itself (either intermediate or the extensions to the wheels), or with the mechanism on the wheel itself. You should hear a slight grinding if that is the case.

A 99 will have a disk brake rear end with an internal drum brake inside the 'hat' of the brake rotor. This setup uses a mechanical cam style activator to engage the brake band into the drum.

 

Maybe the brake booster has gone bad? Would explain why the pedal would be hard to push since you would be using manual brakes. Another thought on my 98 tacoma the brake light will come on if you are low on brake fluid so maybe check that. Just some ideas I figured I would throw out..

 

Doh!....Ok. I see the proper part, shoe from RockAuto. Basically it's just a "mini-drum" inside the rotor correct? Then I guess what I'm suggesting is to check the point of attachment of the cable to the shoe actuator. For lack of a more tech savvy vocabulary. LOL.

 

Everything looks as if its all hooked up. When i unhhoked them from the drum i lost mostly all my regular breaks.

 

Disconnecting the parking brake should in no way impact the regular brakes on the vehicle. Sounds like you disconnected the line to the caliper... Either that or you have more issues with the braking system than your originally let on...

 

the brake light will also come on when the master cylinder is low on fluid have you checked that yet