How do you tighten the parking brake?

[Chromenut]

Originally Posted by Mal

Hey CN or MM, could you look in the manual and see if there is a specification for how many clicks you get to a tight parking brake lever. I have several manuals and those with lever type parking brakes list a specified number of clicks.

Sure, be right back... lol... I'll post the page too if I can find it...

[Mal]

Great; thanks. Just installed a trailer hitch that took 4 hrs to do a 30 min job. If I had known that the carrier bent it I could have used the fork in the trees earlier.....

[Chromenut]

Okay sports fans, it's not a number of clicks because it's based on the wear of the shoes for the parking brake, and the adjustment is IDENTICAL to adjusting rear shoes, the easiest part of working on a brake system. I'm going to attach the entire section on the parking brake adjustments, all 3/4ths of a page of it, but will give you the entire process in a simple process that my sister can follow, and she's a natural blonde.

1. Chock the side of the car you're not working on. So if you're working on the right side of the car, chock both front and rear tires of the left side. THIS IS VERY DAMNED IMPORTANT, mainly for those of us with manual tranny's.

2. Put your parking brake in the "off" position, or down all the way to free up the rear tires.

3. Jack up your rear tire only on the side you want to work on. If you jack the whole back end, I hope the car rolls back over you. You deserve it.

4. Spin the tire to see if it rotates freely. Just a check.

5. Creep under the car and remove the small little rubber plug on the back side of the disc brake adapter. This will be a bit towards the rear and bottom of the adapter. If it's real dirty it may not look like rubber, but it is. Carefully remove the plug, DO NOT LOSE THE PLUG. If you decide to throw the plug away now, then you deserve to lose your rear brakes in the next rain storm, crash into a ditch, and die a horrible, slow bleeding death.

6. With a screw driver, or in my case a brake shoe adjustment tool (it looks like a flat bladed screw driver on each end, but is canted at two different angles allowing the user more flexibility, and cost $7 at Advance Auto Parts), look into the hole where you just removed (and saved unless you're an idiot) the rubber plug - you will see a star wheel there. With the screw driver, or in my case adjustment tool, move the star wheel upward until you feel a slight drag on the rear wheel. Just spin the wheel until drag starts.

7. Once you've achieved drag, you need to slowly click the star wheel down (that's towards the ground for you who aren't sure of the difference between up and down) and spin the tire until you just have one click and no drag. I suggest that once you lose drag, go two clicks past it. This allows you to pull the brake lever up about half way from what it used to be when it was pointing at the roof.

8. Put the rubber plug back in, or not....

9. If you put the plug back in, lower the car, go do the other side, starting at step 1.

10. If you didn't put the plug back in, lower the car on your head.

That's it!!! 10 easy steps any moron, or Peter from the family guy, could follow.

Now can we talk about something else???

[Mal]

No number of clicks specified I suppose ........ It sure was easier with the disks off......

[Chromenut]

Originally Posted by Mal

No number of clicks specified I suppose ........ It sure was easier with the disks off......

Nah, they couldn't say how many clicks cause say JohnDoeDumba$$ is driving with his parking brake partially engaged. He'd wear down his shoes before the dummy wakes up to smell the brake dust. So how many clicks would he need?

It's simple, exactly like adjusting brake shoes on the cars without discs. I used to do this on my 1966 Marlin about once a year, that beast had shoes and drums like a school bus.

Simple, access the star, rotate the tire while clicking on it. Up goes tight, down goes loose. Click up until you get drag on the wheel. Then click down two times, make sure the tire rotates freely, and you're done!!! Damn easy, and besides, I like laying under my car, as long as my wife's no where near the jack!!! lol.... Oh, yes, Jack stands, those are good things to have...

[Chromenut]

Originally Posted by Mal

Great; thanks. Just installed a trailer hitch that took 4 hrs to do a 30 min job. If I had known that the carrier bent it I could have used the fork in the trees earlier.....

I need to speak with you on that. I'm thinking of installing a "hidden hitch", but haven't really gone through the motions yet. PM me what problems you had and any suggestions on what to watch out for. Also any advice on the hitch itself would be most welcome.

[Mal]

PM enroute.....

[Chromenut]

Originally Posted by Mal

PM enroute.....

EXACTLY what I wanted! Muchos Gracias amigo!

[Mal]

De Nada Dude....

[dsmturbo]

Originally Posted by Mal

I give up, I don't think there is any way to convey that these are instructions for adjusting the rear parking brakes for cars with rear disk brakes. Disk brakes. Disk brakes.

The confusion comes from the fact that the parking brakes consist of a drum and shoes inside the rear disk. The "hat", if you will of the disk is the drum for the parking brake. Inside that hat are shoes but the main, hydraulically operated brake, is a disk, caliper and pad. The parking brake is cabley operated and a pair of shoes inside the raised portion of the disk.

I know I'm doing a lousy job of explaining it or it would be understood. I'll try to learn how to post pictures; this forum software looks so much like others I've used I thought it would work. The pictures open fine for me even on another computer....dsmturbo; if you're pullin my leg, I'm gonna reach through your computer and bop you on the nose, a la 3 stooges....

LMAO, yuk yuk
No, not pulling legs off, I did manage to open pics, thanks