Rolling in gear?

[BradH71]

So I drove my 1988 Comanche SporTruck 5 speed manual to a friends house that lives on a hill and went to put the parking break on and found that it is shot. I thought "no problem, I'll just put it in gear for now." I quickly found out that no matter the gear I was in it would still roll down the hill, I eventually had to chock the front wheels...thoughts?

[shelbyluvv]

It's normal. The compression will leak down and allow it to roll. There is a reason why there are parking BRAKES and you are instructed to turn your front wheels into the curb when parking on a hill.

 

[jimoshel]

Fix the brake? :dunno:

[jimoshel]

Give some kid a buck to sit in the truck and hold his foot on the brake pedal.

Get a 10 inch long 5/8th diameter bolt. Remove a spark plug. Screw the bolt into the plug hole until it contacts the piston top.

Park sideways on the hill side.

Park the truck at the bottom of the hill and walk up.

[BradH71]

Those ideas all sound good but I think I'll go ahead and just fix the brake!!

[ftpiercecracker1]

1st gear and 4 low, my truck becomes 99% immobile even on the steepest of hills.

[HOrnbrod]

That's an advantage with automatic transmissions. When you slam it in PARK, a mechanical pawl slides in between the teeth of the flexplate and the sucker isn't going anywhere. I have to remind myself to apply the parking brake occasionally to keep it free and operational.

[Megadan]

The real question is why it doesn't work.  Mine doesn't work either, but I do the 4 Low and first gear trick as mentioned above for steeper inclines.  I carry a 2 x 4 in my bed to chock the tire, and turn the wheels into the curb.  I have new cables, but I am also having problems with my parking brake pedal mechanism and I guess it is a fairly common issue.