parking brake... how does it work??

[dmorlow]

Ok, I had to change my brake pads and rotors yesterday. I got all done and everything was good except I decided to put my parking brake on to adjust my rear calipers. When I did that, only one parking brake came on (passenger side). Tried it many times and only that side came on. Then I waited until today to look at it again. I put on the parking brake again and now my driver's side parking brake turned on, but it locked up. I couldn't get it to unseize, so I bought a new caliper for the driver's rear. Now that I have it hooked back up, it is back to only the rear passenger parking brake working. (All my brakes work when using normal braking functions. All this only applies to the parking brake.) Now I don't understand exactly how this parking brake even works. Most cars, the cable splits before the driver's rear wheel to split between the drivers brake and the passenger brake. Then when the cable pulls, it is pulling on both sides of the car. This car is different. It splits half way between the driver's and passenger's side. It doesn't even make any sense why it would work. If you push on the brake pedal, it is pulling the cable towards the front of the car. It is pulling the cable towards the pedal for the passenger side. But seeing that it splits half way between the wheels, it is actually pushing cable forward towards the driver's side wheel (instead of pulling to pull the lever on the caliper). I have a diagram of the parking brake and it confirms what I was thinking. But it can't be right. It makes no sense. It seems like there would have to be something in the center of the car between the two wheels that would reverse what way it is pulling the cable for the driver's side rear wheel for it to work. But according to the book, there isn't anything like that. There is a plate covering the center where the cables come together so I can't see it very well.
So does anyone know what I am seeing wrong? Plus is using the parking brake even necessary? The older style cars, it would adjust the rear brakes, and if you don't use it, your back brakes quit working. From what I understand, this is still true on a 95 Aurora. Is there a way to adjust the rear calipers in without using the parking brake. I change my oil religiously (every 3,000 miles). We have a hoist I change it on, so if I took off my rear wheels every oil change and just manually adjusted them for wear of the rotors and pads, that would be fine. But I am not sure how to adjust the calipers by hand.

[dsatt12]

I could be wrong with the Aurora, but don't all disc brakes self adjust themselves when you brake in reverse? That's how I've always seated my pads is to do a few firm stops in R.

I'm a little confused by your description though. I've seen that little junction plate thing under the car. Both cables from the wheels would get pulled toward the middle of the car, yes? Sure, you've got to have some sort of lever on or in the caliper to apply force toward the rotor, but that didn't sound like what you were confused on.

I can reassure you that I never ever use my parking brake (since I did like you and got it locked on). My rear brakes work fine, adjust themselves, and wear normally. I got some pretty good advice from the brake shop that freed up the parking brake that time- either use your parking brake every day, or not at all. It's not such a safety issue about slipping out of gear with an automatic, so I don't use mine.

[SublimeZ31]

i might be wrong dsatt12 but i think thats more of a GM thing really... my nissan 300zx adjusted the calipers in the rear when you applied the hand/parking brake.