Take a small flat blade screwdriver and pop off the trim piece ontop of the gear shift ****, there is a nut in there, tighten it, not to tight, but just enough.
Problem solved.

 

I agree with Spike, sounds like you got a lot of slack in the cable and it is just not fully moving the linkage into park position.

 

And to answer your question, you are not hurting your transmission at all by just using the parking brake. There are no gears engaged in an automatic transmission while your engine is off. It's just like being in neutral.

Also, see the quote in my signature. It applies to this situation.

 

"Self doubt reinforced by ignorance of what lies ahead."

 

Thank you- I will give this a try. Does this have anything to do with the cable being too loose? Would it solve that problem?

 

Thank you- so with the extra slack, do I need to to take it in to be repaired? Could the cable be worn or need to be replaced? Would they need to take the transmission out to do this?

 

Thank you for this info. Right now after the repairs I just made I can't afford to fix this, yet I don't know if I should be driving this car this way. The car drives fine- it just won't stay in park unless the ebrake is used. I was curious if I could use this car in this manner until I can afford to take it in. They want at least 1k to lift out the transmission, then who knows what they'd charge to fix the problem.

 

Btw I believe it is no longer referred to as the "emergency brake". Emergency brakes were the old style that were used as a pedal. The handle style is now referred to as a "parking brake" and you will in no way damage anything using it as such, which is what it is in intended for. All it does is mechanically apply and hold the rear brakes.

I'm not familiar with the cable system of this thing but if there is excess slack that is definitely your problem, or at least the first place to start in solving it. Please be sure to follow up on this thread once you do solve this issue. Btw how many miles are on your truck?

 

ours hold the driveshaft not the rear brakes...and if you're going down the road at 70mph and your brakes fail I bet you don't care if its called the emergency brake or the parking brake when you're reaching for it

 

Yeah some people call em hand breaks, etc. I didn't think it would damage the actual parking break, I just didn't know if it was a good idea to continue to use the car in this manner since the park gear isn't keeping the car in place and I can't afford to have them look at it. Some people thought it was a parking pawl, but others say no that would have just flat out broke and it doesn't "wear" down hence I wouldn't be able to get it into to not roll in park on occasion.

I got about 70k.

Thanks again