Removing parking brake

[Den P]

Forgive me if this has been posted somewhere. I’ve looked everywhere for any info on this. 1998 Silverado, Z-71. 400K miles +/-... Just replaced ALL brake lines, calipers, upgraded master cylinder to 2001. Brakes have been awesome for several hundred miles. Passenger rear wheel cylinder keeps blowing front piston out suddenly. E-brake cable has been inop and tied off to the frame for years. Could this have moved inside the drum assembly causing too much room for the piston to extend? Both pistons do not touch the brake shoes at he same time when adjusted as tight as I can get them and still get the drum on. I believe all parts are correct. Can I just remove the brake cable from the ebrake inside the drum and leave it off? Haven’t used it in 15 years, so pretty sure I wouldn’t miss it.
Thanks for any thoughts on this - other than I will die a fiery death after going over a cliff on Dead Man’s curve if I were to not have a functional emergency brake - you know who you are ha ha!

 

[Gibson]

If you have the "Leading-Trailing" type brakes, they use the parking brake to stay properly adjusted.
Deliberately disconnecting the parking brake is beyond silly, it's stupid,, maybe one day that little pawl in the trans will break and you'll wish you had a fully operational brake system.

 

[Den P]

This is what is what I was and wasn’t looking for. Appreciate the first part! Thanks! Second wasn’t necessary. Have a nice day anyway.

 

[94burbk1500]

If you have the "Deliberately disconnecting the parking brake is beyond silly, it's stupid,, maybe one day that little pawl in the trans will break and you'll wish you had a fully operational brake system.

That's a bit sensational, don't you think? I only use parking brakes on manual vehicles and have never had an issue, and I've owned quite a few beaters. While I would fix the parking brake anyway, I don't think there's much of a chance of some catastrophic failure like you described. Take your xanax and chill out!

 

[RichLo]

yea, theirs been mandatory 2-chamber master cylinders ever since the 50s for a reason. If a front brake line pops, you still have the rear and vice versa. The real danger is when people cut the rear brake line because they dont want to fix the drums correctly so they are driving on the street with only front brakes.

To answer your question, there is no way that a cut parking brake would be causing your wheel cylinders to pop out. I imagine this is due to not adjusting the star wheel correctly before putting the drums back on.

All that said, I would also recommend at the very least keeping the parking brake on the back of your mind to fix in the future

 

[Gibson]

This is what is what I was and wasn’t looking for. Appreciate the first part! Thanks! Second wasn’t necessary. Have a nice day anyway.

You're right,, second part was not necessary,, and I apologize for my snarky remark.

 

[cookseyb]

In some states a parking brake is part of the State Inspections.