Parking Brakes of Doom: Inspection Tomorrow

[96eb96]

If you still have problems I noticed that the levers that apply the shoes have rust on them. If there is any friction on those surfaces, the brakes may not fully retract.

Clean them up with naval jelly, wirebrush, evaporust whatever and coat with a thin layer of molly grease or synthetic brake grease.

Those shoes would also benefit from some sandpaper, but wear respiratory protection and spray brake cleaner afterwards.
If that don't work, consider a boat anchor.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

For all those following, I passed inspection without any issue.

I think the biggest difference in holding power was after I followed 96eb96's recommendation of sanding the rotors. I used 150 grit paper and got the insides nice and shiny, then adjusted as previously recommended.

Thanks all!

 

[trogg]

I just use linelock as my parking brake wonder if that would fly in your neck of the woods...

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

I just use linelock as my parking brake wonder if that would fly in your neck of the woods...

A rear linelock is a great think to have, but it's biggest hangup for using as a parking brake at inspection time is that the service brakes to be activated before the linelock is engaged. Assuming the linelock is wired to the e-brake footpedal, if the inspector just pushes the e-brake footpedal without first hitting the service brake pedal, no dice.

 

[drakeguy22]

You guys should be thankful you dont live in NY. The inspections here suck!

 

[sino]

^ yea. i failed inspection twice due to the e-brake.
i still have to get it inspected. im just hoping it doesnt need everything replaced. =/

 

[96eb96]

You guys should be thankful you dont live in NY. The inspections here suck!

Yeah, all they give a damn about is the emergency brake. I brought in a car with a broken shock mount, it passed. But the guy was gunning the engine and telling me it creeps a bit! I ended up replacing a binding cable.

The NY guidelines are "must hold under moderate acceleration" so its up to the inspector to interpret that. There is no set RPM. There also has to be some reserve in the brake pedal.

If you have a self-release parking brake, they absolutely do no inspection on it. I think that is a ridiculous double standard. Its not hard to see if a brake like that can slow the car down from a slow speed. The book says to just check the parking brake pedal exists and move on.

A line lock wouldn't work either, the system must be independent of the service brake.