Parking brake follow up question

[Tedybear]

Quick follow up question.

New shoes, rotors, wheel seals... Pretty much rebuilt the rear brakes.

I've adjusted the shoes until I can hear and feel light drag on the discs.

They have been centered a few times just like I'm used to doing for drum brakes.

Problem: The pedal still goes to the floor and they do not grab "hard" when applied. NYS requires the parking brake to hold under light acceleration, and frankly it's a standard. So it needs a good parking brake when I'm parked on a hill.

Am I missing something silly? Or do these shoes need a larger amount of 'drag' to the point it seems like overkill?

Both sides seem to activate fine. Although it took the better part of a can of fluid film to get the passenger side totally freed up. It was sticking slightly against the tension of the return spring built into the pedal. It's totally free now.


Just wondering how far down that pedal should travel before they are both locked up. Right now? I feel like I should have to bring along a set of wheel chocks.

S-

 

[Stick4503]

Do you have a separate adjustment on the brake cable to take up slack?

 

[koda2000]

I would adjust the shoes until I couldn't turn the rotor/drum any more and then back off the adjuster until I could just get it to move w/out excessive drag.

There is no adjustment for the cable under the truck, but there's something associated with the parking brake cable pedal linkage. I don't know if it's an actual adjustment though. It could be your cables are stretched and should be replaced... ? My only experience with the cable(s) is when I had a broken cable on the driver's side wheel. It was a ***** getting the new cable on. That's when I remember someone saying something about releasing the cable tension up at the pedal linkage, but you have the opposite problem. I never use the parking brake, so other than occasionally making sure it still functions I've never examined the way it works too much.

 

[swshawaii]

Koda nailed it, again. Release the parking brake, tighten star adjusters until they stop, back off 4-5 clicks. Test hold and drag. Done.