Just bought truck. Took to mechanic. All brakes good but parking brake (push pedal) has resistance but does not stop the vehicle from moving forward.
Asked mechanic how much it would be to add to the bill (they are doing lots like shocks, fuel tank, pitman arm, coolant flush, ball joints, FEA, oil change, 4 new GoodYear 31x10.50x15 Duratracs and he told me its not work the price to fix it.
I hate having a non functioning park brake. All the brakes are good and done within a few months ago

Should I just go somewhere else for this 1 item or is this something I can do myself?
Thanks
Todd

 

When mine wasn't working right I took my truck to the dealership to have them work on this and it came back worse!

I then had to figure it out for myself. I later got a GM service manual and then saw where they had it explained. The weird thing was that even the GM dealership mechanics couldn't do it AND THEY HAD THE MANUAL BEFORE I DID.

Assuming you have rear disk brakes what you have is that on the inside face of the rear rotors, there is a drum that is part of the parking brake mechanism with shoes that will engage with the inside of the drum. What happens is that the self-adjusters on these shoes stop working or if the shoes are replaced, they are not adjusted properly when first installed. If all the cables underneath look fine, the parking brake pedal feels like it is taking up slack but just not enough, then this could be what is going on with yours.

What I did was take the rear wheel off along with the rear caliper so I could take off the rotor. Then I'd rotate the adjuster enough so that the rotor would not go back on. Then I'd back if off just enough for me to get the rotor on and for it to not rub with the rotor and wheel back on. To make sure the "measurement" is done correctly, you have to pull on the cable to center the shoes. It took several tries but I got it work.

This was especially important to me because I launch my sailboat boat with this Blazer and I did not want to show up in one of those Boat Ramp Fail videos! LOL

I'm also attaching the scans from the 1999 GM Service Manual in case you can use them. Note they are in two parts; one for the front part with the foot pedal to the equalizer mechanism, and one for the parking brake shoes.

 

My son's truck from Iowa had parking brakes that were totally gone as in no pad left and rusty as all get out.

I fixed them as the pads were about $40 buck and the hardware kit was $20 but using Christine's advice to adjust there work great now.

 

Oh good. I always hope that any advice I give is useful and works!

 

Thank you very much. Much appreciated
Tod