E-brake is stuck, will not budge

[10ga]

I bought a high mile 1998 model a few weeks ago and the e-brake will not move. If you pull up on it, it will not budge, any ideas what it might be? The previous owner had 10 years of service records from Toyota so I thought he might know but he said it had been like that since he bought it with 150,000 miles on it and for some reason he never asked the service tech at Toyota about it.

Thanks for any help or suggestions

 

[abuck99]

Prob the bell cranks are corroded and frozen- pretty common-but easily fixed.

You'll want to be sure that you didn't pull the brakes even slightly tight, if corroded they prob didn't release. Even a little friction for short duration will kill the e brake shoes, and maybe the inside braking surface of the the rotor. Been there & done that.

On each side of the rear brake are small threaded rubber stoppers connected to the e brake cable. If the stoppers are pulled away from the back of the dust shield good chance your brake shoes are pulled against the drum.

 

[Sandroad]

Here's the diagram of the e brake. Like @abuck99 noted, the bell cranks get frozen. Lots of posts on that problem.

PARKING BRAKE comp.pdf

 

[10ga]

Thanks guys, I'll check this out.

 

[n55luvr]

x3 on bell cranks. Was one of the first things we tackled on my rust belt rig. I think it was about $300 in parts to rebuild the e-brake. I even had to install a new cable.