Hi everyone. I have a 2005 chevy express 1500 cargo van, and I have been trying to replace the drivers side rear parking brake cable for months as the old one snapped. I’ve tried two junkyard cables, along with a brand new one from autozone, but the sheathing on all of them seems to be too long, so I can’t hook up the collar to the other cable that runs to the passenger side wheel. I’ve tried resetting the parking brake pedal by pulling on the front cable, but it’s given me everything it can. I’m at a loss here, and the yearly inspection is coming up real soon, so would greatly appreciate any tips and ideas

 

Do you have the equalizer?
https://charm.li/Chevrolet/2005/Expr...0Right%20Rear/

 

If you’re referring to this bit right here, then yes, I do have it. It’s the thing i’ve circled at the top left of my picture, and it’s what i’m trying to hook the collar up to. I didn’t know that’s what it was called till now.

 

Or maybe release the auto adjuster at the pedal? https://charm.li/Chevrolet/2005/Expr...ic%20Adjuster/

 

Tried that. I was pulling real hard while I had someone hold the pedal upwards, but I didn’t really pull any more of the cable out. Maybe i’ll try again tomorrow.

 

Sorry, it’s been a minute, but I’ll go ahead and update this thread with a possible solution. I was able to follow this video here and successfully unwind more of the parking brake cable from the pedal assembly:
Not sure why, but following the instructions from that bulletin(?) did not work at all. No matter how hard I pulled on the cable, none of it unwinded out. When I followed the video, however, I was able to easily unwind about a foot of cable. Of course, now this made the cable too long, but this was easily fixed by attaching it to the equalizer first, and then “pumping” the pedal while holding up the release lever. Now, when engaged, the cable feels pretty tight, but the parking brake still doesn’t hold the vehicle at all, which could mean that the shoes need to be adjusted. I’ll update this thread again whenever I get to that, which should be soon. I could still be missing something, though, and any ideas would be appreciated.

 

There should be an adjustment in each rear brake to tighten it up more. My 2011 1500 has rear disks with drum parking brake. I have to pull the drum to make the adjustment. There are videos that explain it better than what I can type up. If it's already near max you might have to loosen it to the max, adjust the cable up front then again then do each rear. Once you see how to do it it's not complicated. I don't know if yours is the same as mine but there will be an adjustment.