GM trucks and suv have a big problem with the 1500 design. The shoes wear very quickly and that is probably the problem. Sometimes the shoes wear down to metal, which will damage the rotor. The rotors can not resurfaced on the inside.
Go to a dealership and buy a new style retaining clip. The new shoes should already come with these, but ask before you buy. GM says the shoes fall out of position and wear prematurely. The new clip will help this. Good luck and I hope this helps.

 

yeah, my truck is the same way. i tried adjusting it out, but that just flat didnt work. now i know what i can do to get my e-brake to work again. let me know what you do so i can do the same parish8

 

Mine did something very similar. I thught it was because of my body lift (you have to move the e-brake cable some). I was able to get mine to the dealer while it was still under warranty. It felt like the cable was way too loose and wasn't getting to the brakes. Turns out the pads were worn out completely.

 

mine have not worked worth a damn since i got the truck new. i have a buddy that is a gm tech and when he was putting in my eaton recently i looked at my e brakes. horrible design, if you have not seen them it is like a drum brake but instead of the pads being separate they are all on one assembly like a circle with a space cut out of it for the brake cylinder and it has the pads on both sides. any ways i looked and the pads looked good until you get to the end of one of the pads. that is the only place it was worn. my buddy told me that for all the parts it is like 700$ <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" /> and recomended replacing the rotors because something about it wont work well or it will mess up the pads again not realy sure. i believe he told me the pads were like 100 dollars a side. when mine stop working completly i am going to just replace the pads and see how that works. hopefully this helps.

 

The upper portion of the shoes do wear sooner than the rest of it. You do not need to replace the rotor if it is not damaged. The shoes are around $70.00 for both sides. If the shoes do not come with the bigger retaining clips I believe they are around $8.00 a pair. The brake pads are around $100 a pair but have nothing to do with the parking brake. I don't remember how much the rotors are. If you use the parking brake often it will help the wearing problem. I have seen these shoes last anywhere from 18,000 to 40,000 miles. By the way the 18mm bolts on the back are a pain.

 

when i said brake pads i was talking about the shoes or the actual friction surface but could not think of what to call them. and im glad to know that the partes are cheaper than i thought.

with the new clips do the e-brakes last longer?

 

I might be sounding like a idiot here but are shoes not on drum brakes? My e-brake has worked fine since i got my truck. I have 85k on the original brakes and still have a bunch of pad left. I love that they went to 4 wheel discs on these trucks.

 

Man, $100 is still pretty steep for a set of pads. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" /> Hope mine last a while.

 

Yes, the new clips help the shoes from moving against the drum surface when the parking brake is not applied. I have not seen a vehicle return with parking brake problems after the new clips have been installed.
By the way you do not have to take the axles out like some would have you believe. Slide the shoe over the axle at a angle and it will go.

 

mine doesn't work at all, the cables move and pull a lever on the backing plate. anyone else have this problem? do i just need some new shoes? i have never used these once, i wonder if the previous owner tried to drive with them on and just wore the shoes out.

i will have it apart soon and would like to know what kind of parts i might want to have on hand if anyone knows.