Parking Brake Adjustment
 

Now that I,ve fixed my valve train nosie and replaced the multi-functional switch, I,m looking for a thread on parking brake adj., I read a while back that I can't locate. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pull the rear wheels and calipers and rotors and there is a star wheel on the e-brake shoe you use to adjust them. You might have to clean the rust lip off the little drum inside the rotor hat depending on how old they are because the shoe needs to be quite close to the drum to work.

I'm bringing this topic back from the dead, because I tried to adjust my parking brake with no success. I removed the rotors without too much effort, besides getting the caliper brackets off, but I couldn't seem to be able to figure out how to get the "adjuster wheels" to rotate.

In a discussion that I read here last week, but can't seem to find today, one of the frequent posters said that the average e-brake needs to be adjusted out by 8-10 "clicks". I used compressed air to blow all the debris out of my parking brake area, "borrowed" my wife's nail polish, to mark the adjuster wheel and put a reference dot, so I could move the wheel "8 clicks", but couldn't get the adjuster to rotate.

I've been around long enough to know "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", so when things wouldn't easily move, I DIDN'T break out the 15" Channel Locks, and attack things. I put it all back together so I could clear the garage, as well as drive the car. That's where I currently stand.

Anybody care to share the trick that allows you to turn the adjuster wheel??


TIA!

Was the adjuster bottomed out? How about rust? Which way did you try to turn it?

My experience has always been a little WD40 and a flat head screw driver to get them to turn.... However, they are all a little different...

When brake dust etc. gets in there, they can be a pita to get turning..

I don't know the overall length of the adjuster, but I'm 'guesstimating" that it was somewhere around 1/2 extended. There was no rust, just a little "dirt". I tried to turn it (them) both ways, but as I previously said, I wasn't going to "horse" them and screw something up.

There appears to be some sort of silver plated "clip" or "detent spring" behind the adjuster, attached to the backing plate, that keeps the adjuster from randomly turning, and I couldn't figure out how to get it to disengage.





BTW, are the adjusters metal or plastic? Mine are black, in color, and they had a plastic like appearance, which was another reason why I didn't readily "attack" them....

Had to remove my adjusters, clean and lube them, they work great now.

They are all metal. The clip does keep them from turning on their own but you can still rotate the adjuster.

So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying to grab the adjusters with channel locks, and start turning?

The adjuster basically consists of a bolt through the middle with the head notched so it indexes to the e-brake shoe. The adjuster is like a nut around this bolt and pushes it out as it's adjusted. You have to get that adjuster rotating around the threads again.