EM Parking Brake

[Dennis Mosley]

Hey guys,

I have never been able to get the parking brake on my em to really work. I have spent the last couple of days jacking with it and have all but given up.

Anyone have any tips on what they did to get the darn thing to work. I am useing the vet suspension with with the braking system that is supposed to use the pads to clam down on rotor when you activate it. I have about a quarter inch left on the adjusting screw on the cable and with the parking brake pulled, I can still push the car around my garage with little effort.

HELP!!!!! I would really like for this to work. I have been lucky the past couple years during the inspection but don't want to depend on that plus I just like having a parking brake for various reason most of which is saftey.



Thanks in advance!!!

[Tommy]

I'll offer what little advice I have. My E-M has 1987 Corvette suspension, but as it was built primarily for racing, the Corvette parking brake was not connected. The Corvette emergency brake assembly uses shoes inside a miniature drum like old drum brake cars. It does not use the disc brake pads or rotors. So, it is entirely possible for the disc brakes to work fine and the emergency brake to not work at all. ... When the emergency brake cable is pulled tight by the handle in the cockpit, it should move a lever on each of the rear brakes, pushing the shoes against the drum. If the brakes are not holding, it is either because the cable system is not pulling the levers far enough, or the shoes are not generating sufficient friction against the drums. ... If I were troubleshooting the problem, I'd put the car on jack stands, engage the emergency brake handle and then see if I could move the levers even farther to engage the brake shoes. If I could, then the problem is in the cable adjustment. If the levers are fully engaged but the wheels still spin, then the problem is inside the drum (e.g, worn shoes, grease on shoes, etc.). Good luck.

[Dennis Mosley]

Tommy,

you may have solved my problem. I was told that in the 88 rear end it did not use the seperate shoes but used the pads instead. I need to do more research.

Thanks for the input.

[ENTDOC]

if you have a 88 vette rear then you should have the newer disk e-brake system. chuck

[Steve Jones]

Dennis,

Chances are the camming mechanism in the caliper that applies the pad pressure when the cable is pulled is out of adjustment. There is a limit to how much movement of the pads the mechanism can produce. If it's adjusted two loose it won't apply the pads. You may also have too much slack in the cable assembly. As I recall, the single cable running from the E-brake handle runs to a screwy union just over the differential. This union applies pull from the handle to the driver side caliper cable which is pulling against the passenger side cable ( a lot of places for slack). There is an adjustment screw at that union to take up cable slack, you may also have adjustment at the E-brake handle as well.
I'd start at the caliper and apply the E-brake on one wheel by working the lever arm the cable is attached to and rotating the wheel. If the wheel locks up, then get some more slack out of the cables. If the wheel won't lock up, then the cam mechanism needs adjustment. It can be done by hand, or (I believe) they are designed to self adjust. I'm not sure whether it is by backing up and applying the brakes like an old drum brake setup or if there is some other procedure using the E-brake handle. I can look it up in a manual if it would help.

Steve

[richmond]

When I bough my EM (w/ Jag IRS), the e-brake didn't work either. It turned out that the L bracket cable stop at the lever end was made from cheap aluminum w/o any bracing. We realized this after trying to tighten the cable twice and having it work for only a few days. My dad cut/welded a new bracket and I'm putting it back next weekend. My car also didn't have any steel backing plate to support the fiberglass either as I would have expected so make sure the whole system is rigid enough.