Hey fellas. I've got a '13 E-350 SD van. Rear parking brakes trashed along with everything else i.e. rotors, calipers, stripped guide pins etc. I'm stuck trying to compress the parking brake return spring so I can remove the lever. Very limited youtube vids. The return spring isn't "bee hive" shaped like in almost all vids where the mechanic just grabs the spring to compress and remove cable jacket from mount and then unhook from lever. Tried the door spring compressor to no avail. Just keeps sliding off. Prying with screwdrivers and all other various attempts failing. I know what has to be done to remove the lever from the cable. Get spring out of the way, compress the ears on the cable jacket and remove cable from mount. There must be an easy systematic approach to this.
Rusted frozen lever common problem apparently, but just can't find anything on the web?
FWIW I wouldn't have let my brakes get this bad. Bought the truck from very large out of state dealer and was assured several times that this truck was gone over by their best mechanics. It was good to go! Got it back here to Pa. from Ohio and failed Pa.inspection. Front rotors, pads and ball joints shot. Got that handled and moved to the rear. I guess the dealers "best" mechanics don't have inspection licenses.