Parking brake wont hold..

[Darrman]

I am going to be bored this week, being off work, so I figure I will try to get some stuff fixed. I need to get the parking brake working so I can pass inspection in April, I barely passed last year.
I have tighted the adjuster ALOT and it still wont hold hardly. Idling in forward gear, it will just barely hold, reverse not at all. The shoes are still in good shape, and the rear drums and all the springs and cylinders were replaced by the previous owner a little over a year ago, so I dont know what the deal is. Can anbody help me out with this?

 

[BrooklynBay]

The star adjuster wheel on the drums are the main adjustment for the rear brakes. The parking brake has a separate adjustment on the cable's linkage on some models. Which adjustment did you try to adjust? Do you have that parking brake linkage adjustment on your model?

 

[Darrman]

I tightend it at the cable adjuster right in front of the drivers rear wheel. Thats what I am supposed to do, according to the Chilton I have.

 

[BrooklynBay]

You should try to put the rear of the vehicle on jack stands, and adjust the star wheel that is in back of the brake drum. When you make the star wheel a little snug, try to turn the rear wheels, and see if it is still possible to turn by hand. When it is too stiff, turn it back a drop, then go to the next wheel, and do the same thing. If there was a lot of brake shoe travel, then that was your problem.

 

[Darrman]

Ok, I will give that a try, thx for the help.

 

[Vanquish502]

Also the back of the pedal theres an adjuster.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I don't recall any adjustments behind the pedals other than the vacuum switch for the cruise control.

 

[sparky2263]

You need to back off the cable adjuster to where it was before adjusting the rear brakes.

 

[BrooklynBay]

You need to back off the cable adjuster to where it was before adjusting the rear brakes.

I thought about telling him this originally, but I didn't want to confuse him. If he starts to tighten the star adjuster, and feels that it's too tight, he could always go back to that parking brake adjustment. It's also hard to determine just where the original spot was before he adjusted it.

 

[Darrman]

I already know about the pedal adjuster, from what I have seen '91-'92 didnt have the adjustable pedal, thats why they have the tensioner at the rear wheel. Is this right?

 

[frstxplorer]

you might want to check your rear e-brake cables the ones from the wheels to the y where it goes to single cable they are rubber coated but they hold moisture in mine were all fat and pregnant looking step on the e-brake cable went tight but hardley moved the brakes ~~drew~~

 

[Creager]

Did you try the parking brake adjusting cable? Right now mine is so tight i cant release it unless i put it on the first click... even if your drums are not well adjusted, the parking brake will stick those damn shoes into the drums.

try making it extremely tight, and see what happends... it takes a good 4-5 turns to actually make a noticable adjustment.

 

[Darrman]

Ok, I just finished up the brakes, I installed a new power booster (leaking) and tightened up the rear, everything is working great. However, do I have to return the cable to its original place, if so I am probably going to have to redo the whole thing. How tight is the actual pedal supposed to be. I have to push it all the way down, but it is holding in forward and reverse. Thx.

 

[sparky2263]

4-8 clicks and it should be tight.