If your vehicle is showing parking brake lever pulls up much higher than normal, here are the most likely causes and the parts you'll need to fix each one.
As the rear brake shoes, parking brake shoes, or rear brake pads wear down over time, the lever must be pulled further to make the friction material contact the drum or rotor.
The steel cables that connect the hand lever to the rear brakes stretch naturally over years of use. This introduces slack into the system, causing excessive lever travel.
If the rear brakes or rotors were recently replaced, the technician may have forgotten to manually adjust the parking brake star wheel or cable tension to account for the new parts.
If the lever suddenly pulls all the way up with absolutely zero resistance, one of the parking brake cables has likely snapped due to rust, corrosion, or metal fatigue.
The springs, levers, and adjusters inside the rear brake assembly can rust, seize, or break apart, preventing the parking brake from engaging properly and causing a loose lever.
On vehicles where the parking brake is integrated directly into the rear disc brake caliper, the internal ratcheting mechanism can fail, leading to a loss of parking brake tension.