[adis]

The brakes were bad and getting worse on my '80 K30 dually. Rear drum brakes were old, rusty, and had been leaking either cylinder or axle seal.

I rebuilt the rear hub/drum assy (brakes, bearings, seals, drum turned to ~13.07). This stiffened up the brakes significantly, and the brake warning light from the combo valve went off (except for slamming on brakes from 30+ mph - light comes on then immediately goes off) - but my ebrake does not hold the truck on a hill.

i adjusted the cable/pedal - it is tight at 1/2 way. when the ebrake is engaged, with trans in N i cannot spin the DR side by hand, but can on PASS side. When i rebuilt brakes I cleaned up the ebrake levers and greased the pin that holds them to the shoes (they move freely), cleaned up link and replaced spring on the ebrake link between the shoes. Adjusted the shoes by fully assembling hub/drum/wheel, then extending starwheel as far as i could to seat shoes, then backing off until wheels just spin freely.

Any suggestion as to how to troubleshoot this? Frankly, I cannot be sure that the back brakes are functioning other than when I adjusted the shoes fully tight - they held the wheels. So I presume my rebuild was correct. The ebrake pedal and cable are tight to the point where I can't get them past about 5/8.

BTW, truck weight ~7000. Perhaps the ebrake just doesn't hold that? The truck is new to me so I don't know if the ebrake ever worked, but it seems like it ought to hold the weight of the vehicle + load (or I want it to anyway.) Thanks for any suggestions as to where to start looking. - mark