Parking Brake problem
Diamond98
06-22-2004, 07:07 PM
Ok heres my question...my parking brake is not commin on till the vary top...does anyone know how to fix it it my car is a 98 Cav Z24....any ideas please let me know!!! Thnxs
Three_Fingers
06-22-2004, 07:58 PM
Why, yes! Adjust your rear brakes!
The parking brake lever manually applies the rear brakes. If they're too far out of adjustment (not tight enough to the drum), the lever will travel too far before anything happens.
Rmove the rear wheels and look for a rubber plug (or hole if the plug fell out) either in the brake drum or in the brake backing plate on the axle.
There's a lil' star wheel in there ya can hook with a screwdriver-it works like a ratchet.
Ratchet that sucker(if it just bounces and goes "DOING-DOING!" yer goin' the wrong way. It should go "click-click") until the drum is almost locked and won't turn and then reach past the star wheel with a small screwdriver and push on the flat plate behind the star wheel and turn the star wheel the OTHER way until the wheel turns again.
Some scraping noises are OK-they'll go away quickly.
As long as the drum doesn't BIND up bad anywheres in it's rotation.
If it hangs up-you need the drums turned down because they're not round anymore.
If you're hard on brakes or they haven't been replaced in a LOOOONNNNGGG time-take the drum OFF (it'll either fall off when you take off the wheel-you might have to kick it loose if it sticks-OR you might have to remove the center cap/cotter pin/nut/wheel bearing outer half (be gentle with this thing and keep it clean. It breaks real easy and it doesn't like dirt.) to get the drum off. Look at the brake shoes. New ones are pretty thick. There's holes in the contact surfaces of the shoes-if there's something like 1/16" left before the rivets will hit the drum-replace the shoes and any springs/hold downs that look crunchy and slap 'em back together after liberally washing the heck outta everything including the shoe contact surfaces with alcohol brake cleaner.
If there's no inspection hole-you'll have to guess-timate the adjustment with the drum off til the drum fits on the shoes without beating it to death.
Then readjust the parking brake cable if it's hanging slack (LOTSA PB Blaster soaked into the adjuster first-these also break damn easy.).
A real good parking brake adjustment should be three or four clicks on the hand lever's ratchet.
The parking brake lever manually applies the rear brakes. If they're too far out of adjustment (not tight enough to the drum), the lever will travel too far before anything happens.
Rmove the rear wheels and look for a rubber plug (or hole if the plug fell out) either in the brake drum or in the brake backing plate on the axle.
There's a lil' star wheel in there ya can hook with a screwdriver-it works like a ratchet.
Ratchet that sucker(if it just bounces and goes "DOING-DOING!" yer goin' the wrong way. It should go "click-click") until the drum is almost locked and won't turn and then reach past the star wheel with a small screwdriver and push on the flat plate behind the star wheel and turn the star wheel the OTHER way until the wheel turns again.
Some scraping noises are OK-they'll go away quickly.
As long as the drum doesn't BIND up bad anywheres in it's rotation.
If it hangs up-you need the drums turned down because they're not round anymore.
If you're hard on brakes or they haven't been replaced in a LOOOONNNNGGG time-take the drum OFF (it'll either fall off when you take off the wheel-you might have to kick it loose if it sticks-OR you might have to remove the center cap/cotter pin/nut/wheel bearing outer half (be gentle with this thing and keep it clean. It breaks real easy and it doesn't like dirt.) to get the drum off. Look at the brake shoes. New ones are pretty thick. There's holes in the contact surfaces of the shoes-if there's something like 1/16" left before the rivets will hit the drum-replace the shoes and any springs/hold downs that look crunchy and slap 'em back together after liberally washing the heck outta everything including the shoe contact surfaces with alcohol brake cleaner.
If there's no inspection hole-you'll have to guess-timate the adjustment with the drum off til the drum fits on the shoes without beating it to death.
Then readjust the parking brake cable if it's hanging slack (LOTSA PB Blaster soaked into the adjuster first-these also break damn easy.).
A real good parking brake adjustment should be three or four clicks on the hand lever's ratchet.
Classicrocjunkie
06-22-2004, 09:49 PM
I agree with Three fingers. If your brakes have not been looked at reacently the drum will be a bitch to get off just an FYI. I just replaced mine cars totall ass end with new stuff because the dealership fucked up turning them down and i didn't feel like dealing with them again. If your drum dosn't come off too easy, i used a weilding torch and heated the center of the drum then stuck a flat head screw driver and pryed off using this black back part of the braking componet for leverage. Still took a little time but it came off eventually. G'luck with that man.
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