rear brakes - 2002 E-350

My father has a 2002 E-350 (12 passenger). Recently he wanted to replace the rear brakes. After poking around a little bit he realized that something was different about the rear disc brakes. Does anybody know anything about taking the rear brakes apart on a 2002 E-350? Dad said something about adjusting the parking brake also and that it was adjusted or replaced through an internal drum (that was what had him stumped). The local garage said $150 for replacing the brakes (front and back) and over $300 if he wanted the parking brake replaced or adjusted. Do any of you know anything about rear brake replacement or where my dad could go on the web to find a good diagram of the rear brakes? Thanks a lot. I love this site, though, I'm a 95 Olds Aurora owner and I spend most of my time on the Aurora forums.

Thanks in advance.
Aaron

Aaron,

All Ford products with rear disc brakes use a seperate parking brake system that works on the inside lip of the rear rotors. This applies to the HD vans and P/Us for about 10 years.

There is ABSOLUTELY no reason to remove the rear hubs/rotors to perform a parking brake pad replacement unless they no longer hold properly even after adjustment (which can be performed externally, no need to remove the hub/rotor).

The reason for the significant increase in cost is that with the HD vans, you need to remove the entire rear hub/rotor assembly, which includes tha axle shafts, bearing sand rear wheel seals. So this is much more involved than mearly replacing the pads.