I'm working on a 90 W150 I just bought, changing the handbrake cables because they're seized. So I take the drums off and see this on both sides. Are the emergency brake crossbars missing? Or are these brakes like this? I can't see it working like this. The pivot arm appears to be bent as well. Now I gotta drive back to the scrapyard again.

yes, the cross bar is not there and there is no self adjusting cable either

Self adjuster isn't necessary but the crossbar is.

[quote} The pivot arm appears to be bent as well. Now I gotta drive back to the scrapyard again.

---

You mean this? I believe that part is supposed to be like that. It gives the spring that goes there more surface to ride on.

Scott you do know that you can edit or delete your post when they don't come out right don't you?

yo can?

I mean, How?

By clicking on the edit link at the top right hand side of your post. That takes you to your post page and under the bunch of icons you will see a grey box that says "change this post" and "delete this post".

I got an old self adjuster off a C body rear end I had and had to go to a yard to get the crossbar, turns out I already had one but had to go get another. problem is though it doesn't want to go back together, it's as if the crossbar is too long or I have the wrong brake cable. I hooked the cable to the bracket on the frame first then hooked it up to the pivot arm and it wasn't easy to get on, as the cable already had some strain on it, making if very hard to push the spring back to get the arm on. Now the whole mess is lopsided and the right side pushrod is pointed way up. Hard to see in the pic whats going on. I can't see cable being the wrong one, the guy said there is only one right rear cable listed and he double checked the part #.

If the brake lever is releasing far enough, it should almost touch the pin that holds brake shoes to backing plate. I'm assuming you got the cross bar from another 11 inch brake setup? That's what the truck has, no? Also, you have adjuster cable in between return springs instead of behind them both, although that's not related to brake lever isssue. Be certain the cables are releasing all the way, you may have to back adjuster off at cable, stuffs probably frozen(rust)

Yeah I put the cable in between them because that diamond shaped thing is loose and it wouldn't stay put when I tried to put the spring on after.

The truck has 11x2.5 brakes and that's what the crossbar and adjuster are from. In this pic you can see the pivot is pretty far from the shoe though, I guess the cable is too tight? It is released all the the way though, in fact the frame bracket cable isn't even hooked up right now so everything is loose.

Here's the frame end, see that the cable that pulls the bracket forward isn't even hooked up right now. But notice the new cable doesn't stick out of the sleeve as far as the older one for the left side...

Looks like the new cable is to short & it's appling the parking brake, try disconnecting it from the equalizer bar allowing the cable to move further releasing the tension on the brake...