jerry gollnick

I have a 1965. I tested the parking brake this morning before I went for a drive,. The car has been in storage for 7 years. The parking brake didn't hold. I went through the adjustment procedure called out in the 1965 shop manual supplement for 65. I am able to adjust the star wheel to lock up the rotor . I then back off 10 clicks as called for and adjust the brake equalizer with e brake handle pulled out 4 clicks. The shoes don't seem t be activating. getting inside and looking will be a pain because it has the original rotor riveted to the spindle so I'm looking for an easier solution. any ideas?

buns

Well, if you can lock up the rotor by rotating the star wheel, that is a good thing. Lots of pertinent information starting on page 8 of the attached PDF.



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jerry gollnick

WOW, perfect. Thank you.

Texaspilot180

Try adjusting the E-brake cable where it's connects to the secondary cable that runs to each rear wheel under the car. Loosen the jam nut and tighten then rescuer and try it. Had this issue on my 65, everything should work but it didn't and found too much slack in the rear cable. Now, tug it out a couple clicks and the car won't move. I jacked up one side, Jack stand and slid under from the back, but I don't have a spare tire carrier in place but that point is easily accessible.

jerry gollnick

Thanks for idea. i did this. Even with the shoes adjusted i could take all slack out of cable and they still would not engage. i'm thinking now that there is a problem with sho mount or with actuators.

jerry gollnick

After reading the very good article. I measured and found that I have the 1st design ratio lever( it's an original july 65 car with 19,000 miles). I'm going to order from Long Island the 2nd design lever to see if that helps.

jerry gollnick

Looking at the first design versus second design I see that the second design has a shorter lever arm than the first design. This doesn't make sense to me since this would cause LESS movement of the cable and apply lower force to actuate the parking brakes shoes. I've done some testing and with the actuators on the backing plate fully extended the brakes still don't engage. It looks to me like they are just not spreading the shoes. Only thing I can think of doing at this point is pulling off rotors and seeing if I have the left and right switched.

RatDog

The pdf buns posted was immensely helpful to me awhile back when I was having a problem similar to yours.

My problem (and maybe yours) was caused by the parking brake actuating lever falling apart. You can check it easy enough. Remove your wheel and look for where the parking brake cable terminates at the actuator on the top rear of the brake drum assembly. The steel ball on the end of the cable is held by the actuator lever. If you don't find the actuator at that location, it's probably come apart. I found the pieces of mine down in the lower depths of the brake assembly.

Good luck.
Steve

71scgc

Have the parking brake shoes been burnished? I had issues on my '71 until I burnished the shoes IAW the service manual.

Carter

SWCDuke

"Burnishing" will remove glaze that builds up on the linings, which can reduce the Cf.

My '88 MB 190E 2.6 has an identical parking brake design - two small shoes that engage the rotor hat section. Over the years it would loose effectiveness, so I would lightly apply the parking brake while driving, preferably on a mild downhill section of road, and that would improve effectiveness.

Of course, that worn the linings, and eventually it would not hold.

A couple of years ago I installed new pads and in the process, loosened the equalizer, adjusted the shoes with the star wheel, then adjusted the equalizer - all according to the service manual.

Voila! Five clicks of the the center console lever and it holds any grade I've parked on.

The Corvette disk brake parking brake system is considered by most to be less effective than the drum brake parking brake. Given the small shoes on the disk system, that stands to reason, but occasionally burnishing the linings and keeping the system properly adjusted is the key.

Also, since these cars were used everyday in their early life, dirt and corrosion can take a toll, too, so the internal mechanism and cables need to be reasonably clean and free of corrosion.

Duke

jerry gollnick

After looking and checking all the ideas here, I'm pretty sure the problem is in the spreading mechanism. I'm thinking I have the right and left mechanisms switched. Anyone done this or had this experience.?

RatDog

Jerry - If you're talking about the star wheel adjusting screw, it can be installed backwards very easily. Not sure if the actuating levers can be switched, left to right. Take a look at page 6 of the PDF. It shows the correct orientation of both pieces. You should be able to verify if your parts are installed correctly.

Steve

jerry gollnick

After removal of the rotor I found the spreader mechanism was not engaged in one of the shoes. The spreader would move just fine but since it wasn't pushing on both shoes it didn't spread both shoes. this wan't detectable by following the service manual adjustment procedures. You just have to look closely and carefully. Now works fine. Jerry