Emergency Brake / Parking Brake Adjustment

[Mopar1973Man]

This procedure is for rear disc brake trucks.

First block the front tires so the truck can't roll. Then jack up the rear axle of the truck till the tires are off the ground. Use jack stand under the rear axle. Don't set the brake!

SAFETY FIRST!

Now crawl under truck. The pic shown here is the driver side axle hub. There will be a notch in the bracket and in the notch is a rubber plug. You'll need a pair of needle nose pliers to reach in and pull the plug out. Now take a flashlight and look in the notch and you'll see a star wheel. You need to use a flat blade screwdriver to turn the star wheel. Check the wheel for drag by turning. If the shoes start to drag back it off a click or two. Then double check to see if it dragging again.

Now do the other side the same way. Replace the rubber plugs. Now your done.

UPDATED - November 24, 2006

Which direction to turn the star wheel to tighten? That's a simple answer. In the picture above you would want to be turning the star wheel upwards away from the axle to tighten the brakes up. so basically this holds true for both sides. So the passenger side you would want to turn it down and away from the axle. If you reverse this you'll loosen the shoes up. Remember to check for rolling slack they shouldn't drag at all!