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Parking brake assy a mess! Considering deleting entire
Were the engineers at GM smoking too much weed when they designed the parking brakes on these cars?
I was transferring running gear to new Van Steel trailing arms and in doing so I am dealing with the junky parking brake assembly. Springs, retainer cups, pins, etc...
I found one of the floating springs missing its retaining cup and the spring was bent about 90 degrees!
Now, I am stuck until Monday to order these small parts which will take probably a week to get in unless I can find something similar at a hardware store and machine some retainer cups!
Maybe I should just ditch the entire parking brake system as they seem not effective and can drag inside the hub??
When I was about to buy my Wilwood calipers I noticed that there were some other disk brake calipers being made for other cars that had a built-in parking brake for the rear calipers. None for C-3 Corvettes, but it sounded like an interesting idea. You'd think someone would make one of those for C-3 Corvettes since there'd probably be less unsprung weight and a lot of crap could be removed from within.
Anyway, I got the Wilwoods and I think they're great, but my parking brake is still garbage.
Mine were dragging a little bit. I double checked my rear wheel alignment yesterday and the driver side was dead on but the passenger side was slightly off. When I was in there I turned the parking brake adjuster in until it wasn't dragging on the inner drum.
Sometime soon I'm going to adjust the driver side too and hope to never need the parking brake.
Is it an auto? I've had a few issues with the parking brake, as you say, a naff design! But, I'm reluctant to have no parking brake on an auto, in case stopping on a hill breaks the "Park" pawl in the trans. So, I've persevered with getting the parking brake set up correctly. A long process though!
Luckily my OEM parking park hardware and brake still works very well...78 4 speed..not that I use it very often. Parking brake on my daughters 01 Grand Prix with 206,000 miles on it was not working and it failed state inspection. Forced me to fix the e brake and replace the brake light on the dash......if you have to pass a state safety inspection, they could break your ba**s!
But I wouldn't delete it, for it's better than nothing, which isn't saying much, of course. The Parking Brake wasn't working at all when I bought/picked up my project '73 Base.
You want to have it when jacking up the car's front end for any reason, just for safety's sake. I believe you've done the right thing in buying the parts to get it functional again.
A few have adapted the rear calipers from an 80's Cadillac with their internal e-brake lever. When I first got my 69 the rear e-brake was a mess with rusted and bent parts too. I considered the Cadillac conversion but I ended up just rebuilding the drum with stock parts and it is working ok now.
If you buy a new SS hardware kit and new shoes and expect to bolt them in you will have a problem. I don't care whose kit you get, they pretty much come from only a couple of places. The parking brakes WORK in my arms and can in yours too but you have to fit them as with all new parts today.
EVERY kit I use, I machine the star wheels, radius the levers, dress the hold down pins and fit the shoes to the ends- then they are free and adjustable. Also most original cables are stretched out and should be replaced many times. Setting up the parking brake is just another part of correctly building arms, you go step by step and you're good. My brake held my 69 on a 30* angle no problem but you also have to be sure you don't over adjust them as that will burn them up pretty quick.
You can check my old TA thread here, I really don't recall if I went over all the setup there or not- it's been about 10 years now. If you want a link to a more up to date one you can email me, that one I have updated over the years.
If you buy a new SS hardware kit and new shoes and expect to bolt them in you will have a problem. I don't care whose kit you get, they pretty much come from only a couple of places. The parking brakes WORK in my arms and can in yours too but you have to fit them as with all new parts today.
EVERY kit I use, I machine the star wheels, radius the levers, dress the hold down pins and fit the shoes to the ends- then they are free and adjustable. Also most original cables are stretched out and should be replaced many times. Setting up the parking brake is just another part of correctly building arms, you go step by step and you're good. My brake held my 69 on a 30* angle no problem but you also have to be sure you don't over adjust them as that will burn them up pretty quick.
You can check my old TA thread here, I really don't recall if I went over all the setup there or not- it's been about 10 years now. If you want a link to a more up to date one you can email me, that one I have updated over the years.
Since we are all piling on with free advice, I'd keep it. I just picked up a set of Qwik-Lift ramps, and not having a parking brake on my 80 (manual) is the first thing I'm fixing, since it is a two person job to get onto or off of the ramp right now (need a helper to move the chocks).
More free advice: The new stainless hardware works, but use plain steel shoes, NOT stainless shoes. I had to redo the 79 several time because of this. She passed VA state inspection, though.
Search for the dental floss trick. Also, unless you pull the hubs, you will not be able to replace one of the retaining pins, so don't crush that or cut that.
The service manual has good instructions for adjustment. I have a fish-scale for the lever pull test.
I rebuilt the entire parking brake system on my 79 last weekend with a kit I got from Zip. I got the steel version. I had to since it was all junked up and obviously had to have operational e-brake for TX inspection. It worked! It is a pain to replace the shoes everything else fell in place rather nicely.And yes, it did pass inspection.
Call me Bubba but I deleted mine. I had a shoe that was hanging up due to a broken spring that badly scored the drum part of the rotor. I didn't have the time to purchase a new rotor and brake hardware so I just deleted the shoes. Someday I'll fix it when its time for new rotors.
I rebuilt the entire parking brake system on my 79 last weekend with a kit I got from Zip. I got the steel version. I had to since it was all junked up and obviously had to have operational e-brake for TX inspection. It worked! It is a pain to replace the shoes everything else fell in place rather nicely.And yes, it did pass inspection.
I can understand they test ebrake this way on automatic cars because the torque coverter slips if needed and the transferred torque is not that high.
But using the same method for manual cars is ridiculous. Last year at the Inspection, they asked me to rev the car up to 1,300rpm and try to go forward with the ebrake applied, the car obviously moved slowly beating the ebrake. I had to explained the tech -who BTW barely know how to handle the stick- that with high torque engines like ours it's almost imposible to keep the car from moving when they are manual because the clutch transfers the torque in a different way than Auto trans do.
Well, this sounds interesting. Do you have any more info on this 80s caddy adaptation?
Originally Posted by Dynra Rockets
A few have adapted the rear calipers from an 80's Cadillac with their internal e-brake lever. When I first got my 69 the rear e-brake was a mess with rusted and bent parts too. I considered the Cadillac conversion but I ended up just rebuilding the drum with stock parts and it is working ok now.
When I was about to buy my Wilwood calipers I noticed that there were some other disk brake calipers being made for other cars that had a built-in parking brake for the rear calipers. None for C-3 Corvettes, but it sounded like an interesting idea. You'd think someone would make one of those for C-3 Corvettes since there'd probably be less unsprung weight and a lot of crap could be removed from within.
Anyway, I got the Wilwoods and I think they're great, but my parking brake is still garbage.
I have been thinking to install one of these ebrake calipers as well on mine, i'm wondering if one from GM 78-Up cars could be adapted/installe on my 74
I had looked at the Caddy set-up- HOWEVER IIRC the Caddy rotor was an inch wide and would not accommodate the Vettes 1.25" rotors. Wilwood has one too- but it only fits up to a 3/4" rotor.
SO- when I had my new offset trailing arms from Vansteel- they said go with the SS hardware BUT the regular drum pads- as the SS were the wrong size...
I went with an e-stopp electric parking brake actuator and it pulls upto 600ft/lbs and when it's engaged, you can't move the car!!!
mounted it next to the transmission-
cable- through a bracket I made up-
metal reinforcement for the mounting
here it is in action-
Last edited by Richard454; 11-04-2017 at 12:52 PM.
Well, this sounds interesting. Do you have any more info on this 80s caddy adaptation?
I've purge all those memory cells. I know its not bolt in. My vague recollection is you run the thinner '79TA rotor, make an adapter bracket and adapt the cable. I'm sure you could find some DIY websites in Google.
The Cadillac caliper was all that was around back in the day so it has become the urban legend of what to do. Just about every car runs an integrated ebrake rear caliper anymore so surely there is some other car that would be easier now . A FD RX-7 comes to mind...
Last edited by Dynra Rockets; 11-04-2017 at 04:17 PM.
11-04-2017, 01:15 AM
Parking brake assy a mess! Considering deleting entire
The Parking Brake wasn't working at all when I bought/picked up my project '73 Base.
