Parking pawl

[sandawilliams]

I've noticed a problem when parking my 2014 on a slight incline with a heavy load and how I must sequence the actions. If I place it in park and set the emergency brake the next time I start it and try to place it in gear the pawl is locked in and takes a lot of effort to get it out of park. If I reverse the action by setting the emergency brake prior to shifting into park the parking effort works smooth.
Something else I see is there is always a very slight movement when setting the emergency brake. It cant be more than a quarter of and inch but it must be enough to create this problem.
The old drum brakes would lock tight when setting them. The newer disk brakes don't seem to lock immediately on setting. Just a heads up if you are experiencing this problem.

 

[Shiva]

The parking brake is still a drum system. It's called 'hat in drum'.
The rear wheel hubs have the disc brake rotor you see and also a drum in the back like always before. The shoes for the parking brake are still adjustable and I believe the brake cable is as well. My truck only has 7000 miles so next time out I'll park on an incline to see how much roll I get after setting the brake.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Apply the parking brakes. Then shift into Park. That has been the proper sequence for decades.

 

[hotrod45]

Apply the parking brakes. Then shift into Park. That has been the proper sequence for decades.

Yup, for as long as there have been automatic transmissions. Most people never have enough weight on board to "discover" the issue. Parking on steep inclines can sometimes reveal the issue, too.

 

[sparkygreen]

Good info, I noticed this before when parking on a steep incline. But if you use the e brake as described it always shifts smoothly with no jolt.

 

[22hemi13]

I park on a steep driveway. I always let my hill assist engage before I shift into park. If I don’t truck rolls a tad and it’s a booger to get into r the next time.

 

[William Hastings]

My driveway is on a decline, have had this happen in every vehicle ive own. Always put the weight on the parking brake and not the transmission or itll bang goin into gear

 

[turkeybird56]

Yup, for as long as there have been automatic transmissions. Most people never have enough weight on board to "discover" the issue. Parking on steep inclines can sometimes reveal the issue, too.

YUP on grade, put on E brake first. If nothing else, takes a lot of weight off of the parking pawl, and though does not happen frequently, I have heard of people that have snapped the pawl by either having too much weight hit it (ie, like having a trailer and trying to shove into park and also other PPLS that slam tranny into park and vehicle moving at more than a crawl and snap that puppy).

E Brake is the option. NOW up North, really cold, U worried about cable freezing, parked on bad incline, I did the old Air Force thing, throw down a chock block, just saying.....


HOT: Now U know U have the electronic Parking Brake like I do, and U have to manually disengage unless U R belted in and door close and put in gear, then brake disengages. I think there is an Option in the EVIC to have truck automatically put on every time, which I have disabled.

 

[naumaa1]

Its called a parking brake for a reason... My personal sequence is to set the parking brake, truck in neutral, roll that 1/2 inch so that the brake holds the truck, then put it in park. I've been on some pretty steep hills, and never one clunk or difficult time getting the truck into gear.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Same here, my driveway has an incline and i always put the trans in N, then set the parking brake making sure the brake holds the weight of the truck then set the ****** in P. have done the same for years to every vehicle i've had.

 

[turkeybird56]

Hmmmm, set brake, roll, stop, park, interesting, LOL. Honestly neva did it that way. U can always learn sumthin new, hee hee

 

[Coramie]

Its called a parking brake for a reason... My personal sequence is to set the parking brake, truck in neutral, roll that 1/2 inch so that the brake holds the truck, then put it in park. I've been on some pretty steep hills, and never one clunk or difficult time getting the truck into gear.

^^^^^^ x 1,000. You’ll never screw a pawl up by doing it this way. I do it every day on my steep ass driveway.

 

[sandawilliams]

Hmmmm, set brake, roll, stop, park, interesting, LOL. Honestly neva did it that way. U can always learn sumthin new, hee hee

Yep- I've been driving for 51 years and never did it the way these folks say. Never had a problem until recently. Thinking back I never had a problem with the old drum brakes holding firm with no movement what so ever and then placing it into park. Then again I never had a steep driveway either.

 

[DieselMike29]

Yep- I've been driving for 51 years and never did it the way these folks say. Never had a problem until recently. Thinking back I never had a problem with the old drum brakes holding firm with no movement what so ever and then placing it into park. Then again I never had a steep driveway either.

Too many kids (and many older folk too) do not know the use of the "PARKING" brake. They use ONLY the PARK position on their transmission not realizing that what is actually holding them in place is a small metal pawl not nearly as strong as the disk or drum brakes the lever/pedal causes to engage.
In my 55 years of driving, I found that shifting into REVERSE, then turning off the engine and slowly releasing the normal brakes before setting the PARKING BRAKE was best. That allowed engine compression to act as a second brake; of course, that only works with a MANUAL transmission.

Of course, there is a VERY small chance that if you engage the parking brake BEFORE you shift into Park the pawl might not fully engage when you DO shift into Park. As they say: six of one; half a dozen of the other.

 

[Casper]

It still amazes me how many people don't realize the parking pawl is tiny and fragile.

If the earth were flat (like say OH, IN, IA or NE ) it would probably be alright to just slap'er in park and walk away. But anywhere else you're just asking that little part to do a lot of work.

I've always used the parking brake every time I shut any vehicle down--its physics damn it!

 

[TomB 1269]

YUP on grade, put on E brake first. If nothing else, takes a lot of weight off of the parking pawl, and though does not happen frequently, I have heard of people that have snapped the pawl by either having too much weight hit it (ie, like having a trailer and trying to shove into park and also other PPLS that slam tranny into park and vehicle moving at more than a crawl and snap that puppy).

E Brake is the option. NOW up North, really cold, U worried about cable freezing, parked on bad incline, I did the old Air Force thing, throw down a chock block, just saying.....


HOT: Now U know U have the electronic Parking Brake like I do, and U have to manually disengage unless U R belted in and door close and put in gear, then brake disengages. I think there is an Option in the EVIC to have truck automatically put on every time, which I have disabled.

9 out of 10 times that I have seen e-brake/parking brake "freeze" up is due to little to no use regularly. This allows moisture an corrosion to settle in to the covered sections of the cable and cause it to freeze up or seize up.

As for use, it is always e-brake/parking brake 1st, then release foot brake and allow e-/parking brake to take up the load, and finally place tranny in park. If you are parking on an incline with any amount of load, ie trailer or a bed load of stuff it has always been stated you should be chalking the tires as well to assure the parking pawl does not end up taking the full load weight. It is truly only designed to put the transmission in to a neutral state. It has the benefit of being able to stop the vehicle from rolling but its not designed to hold the vehicles full weight and then some.