Yes.
Yes.
The repair is a free DIY job.

 

I think I would rather take my chances steering around something than I would engaging the Parking Brake at 70 MPH. It would lock the driveshaft, but you would have one hell of a slide as it self destructed underneath you.

 

well i didn't mean yank it up as fast as you can...I think you could slowly apply force and bring the vehicle to a stop...have you not looked how they operate? it's just an old school drum brake.

 

Cool. Didn't know it held the driveshaft and not the rear brakes...

 

Amazing. So something so simple could fix this, if this is indeed the problem? Thank you a ton. I will look at this first thing.

 

Whats really cool is going over the off road track at the dealer and the salesman stops on the 40% up slope and puts the trans in neutral and then sets the parking brake and then removes his foot from the foot brake and the truck does not move a inch and all you see is sky, now THATS cool!

 

So Spike, can you use the Parking Brake as An Emergency Brake and engage it at 70 MPH? Curious minds want to know and noone has done a live video yet to demonstrate it.

 

Could you? Sure, why not, if its a life or death situation are you really going to be worried about your truck?
Would I? No, not if I didnt absolutely have to.
If I was going down a hill coming to a stop sign/light and my brakes failed, guess what, I'm yanking that thing up as fast as I can and pumping the brake pedal and downshifting to 1st gear.
If you yank up on the parking brake at 70mph its not going to lock up the driveshaft, it is not that strong, there is just to much mass to try and stop, but it will slow you down and burn itself up in the mean time.
Do I advocate someone trying this? No.