drumdog

I just changed out the rear drum brakes on my 2002 windstar sport, but my parking brake still won't hold the van on a small incline. Question is how hard is it to change the cable from the hand lever to where it hooks up to the cable from the rear brakes?
Anybody have any ideas????

12Ounce

I've never done the work, but the shop manual makes it look easy. TIP: look under the handgrip for a "release" that will allow handgrip and boot to be removed. You will then see a force-release lever that must be depressed and held in place with a pin or small screwdriver... this allows the cable to be released from the hand lever control.

But before you do all that: Did you lubricate all the places inside the drums that require it? Those shoes must be free to slide against the backing plate ... or else the return springs won't work...which actuates the auto-adjusting mechanism. I did my first rear shoe replacement at 120 k miles ... and replaced much of the hardware inside. But I have removed the rear drums; inspected and lubricated the rear brake hardware... with each front pad replacement...which was every 40 k miles or so.

After rear drum maintenance, the adjusting mechanism must be adjusted manually ( till the shoes drag slightly) just to get every thing "started". You do this with a flat screwdriver though those slots in the backing plates.