scottdbutcher

Hey guys!

Im having a problem with my parking brake and I hope someone else has some ideas for me, cause I am out of them! About a month ago my rear left caliper wouldn't release from the parking brake. I climbed under the car and checked all the lines for damage or swollen spots. They all looked fine, I lubed the cables and didn't have any problem after I lubed the cables.

Well it just happened again, so I checked it out again, loosened the adjustment a little for the left rear wheel, not much. Now the parking brake pulls up nice and tight with tension like it should, but does not engage anything at all. I put the adjustment back to where it was, still nothing. I moved the adjusters all the way both directions testing intermittently, but car still rolls freely with brake on.

Anybody have any ideas? When I messed with it before it seemed like the right side parking brake wouldn't work no matter what. Could it be the calipers? Would they still give tension on the parking brake handle without engaging the brake if they were both shot? Is there another adjustment I missed? Thanks guys!

4Driver4

Either bad cables or calipers.

Reggie

2nd

scottdbutcher

So I tore it all apart today. I was kind of figuring that I was going to need calipers, but figured I would check it out before i spent $120 a side. I pulled the calipers and inspected the pistons beneath the boots. Perfectly clean. Removed the cables from the caliper. Checked the parking brake engaging mechanism. Both were stuck full on. Thats why there was tension but no parking brake. The regular brakes seemed to be working fine.

So I almost put it together and went to the parts store to get new calipers, but first I put some 3-1 oil beneath the boots on the piston and on all the contact point of the parking brake engaging mechanism. Then I rotated the piston with a pair of channel locks. Both sides barely rotated. So I put the calipers back on without connecting the parking brake cables and tapped the mechanism back and forth with a light hammer. It broke free after a few hits, and after a few more hits, sprung back and forth as it should! They were just stuck! And since the pistons were clean, I figured it didn't warrant replacing the calipers.

So I did the same thing on the other side, then reconnected everything, adjusted the cable, poured a generous amount of lubricating oil down into the cable, hopefully to keep it pulling smoothly, and my parking brake works. PERFECT. Better than it ever did. It must been seized up since I owned the car! Cost me nothing. Hopefully this will help someone else who has a similar situation! Thanks for the input guys!

rdA4WtQ5

My experience with the exact same problem with mine was also the shaft connected to the lever on the caliper being frozen from corrosion. (Very salty Northeast) After trying many lubes including WD40, synthetic motor oil, synthetic 2 stroke oil all were temporary until I used PB Blaster. Unfortunately, not too long later the calipers began to weep some brake fluid and I ended up replacing them anyway. Rebuilt ones weren't expensive from the imported Auto parts store and are pretty easy to install. First the left one and about 18 months later the right one.

scottdbutcher

Thanks for the heads up. I will keep an eye on them for weeping. If that's the case I will replace them! Im also in the salty northeast, and that stuff does a number on vehicles. Especially the new stuff they are using on the roads. Its 10x worse than salt! I used a little 3 in 1 oil (I have always had awesome experiences with it in the past) inside the piston dust boot. I really believe that helped free them. As far the lever I just used Pb blaster.