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I have four wheel disc brakes. When I pull the parking break handle all the way up the car can still roll. I looked underneath and the adjustment nut is fully adjusted. Do the rear wheels have a separate shoe for the ebrake? Whats going on?
Last edited by Silent Thunder; Mar 15, 2019 at 08:04 PM.
Yes they do have parking brake shoes inside the rear rotors .You might be able to loosen the cable and adjust the parking brake adjusters in the rear wheels to get some more.
Last edited by sug; Mar 15, 2019 at 08:29 PM.
Reason: more info
You might have to drill out your rivets on your rear rotors if your shoes have not ever been replaced and it could be rusty springs ,broken springs or just worn shoes .
Do you have a shop manual for your car (presumably a C3, despite your avatar?)
The procedure in the shop manual works. I had some false starts with mixing stainless parts, but once that was squared away, it works, especially if you use the fish-scale to measure the 80 lb pull into the 14th notch.
Anyway, as Sug suggested, if you adjust the star drive to push the shoes out a bit, that may tighten the shoes up enough that your adjustment nut will fall within range. I'd strongly advise following the shop manual procedure, though, and not jump in halfway through.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
The shoes are inside the back of the rear rotors. Follow the procedure in the AIM or the shop manual.
In a nutshell..... you will need to disconnect one side half shafts so you can spin the rear wheels independantly. With a flat blade screw driver you flip the star adjuster (adjusting screw) until the shoes just start to touch the inside of the rear rotor (drum). Then do the other side. Then you adjust the cable from the pull lever until it tightens up and you can pull up 11 clicks or so and then your pulling about 100lbs if I remember correctly.
Then there is a burnshing procedure. You drive about 30 mph then engage and disengage the parking brake so many times to mate the sufaces.
Its not hard, just tedious and a lot of in and under the car
Heres a good step by step on the rebuilding and adjusting its slighttly different than my outline
I’m in the process of repairing mine right now. I found that the hinge point on the actuating levers on both sides was completely rusted and immovable, making it impossible to activate the brake. This led to the upper springs failing. So with some PB Blaster and manipulation,was able to free up the actuated levers. New springs and I’m good to go. I plan on changing out my trailing arms next winter so I didn’t go crazy replacing components, at this point.
The shop manual doesn’t require removal of a half shaft. Simply tighten the star wheel to the point where you can’t rotate the rotor, then back off 6 to 8 clicks of the star wheel. To remember which way to turn it, I use the term “loose floor” Move your screw driver towards the floor to loosen it. I am also replacing the cable, guides and retainers with new SS. This is the view from underneath the wheel with the rotor removed New springs installed and actuating lever in proper position.
Last edited by Drifter36; Mar 17, 2019 at 06:32 AM.
Took the rear calipers off and the shoes were in good shape. Looks like they never did the star wheel adjustment just the nut on the cable. Since the car has only 26k on it that seems possible.
The star wheel adjusting screw will not move when I use a screw driver. I think it is frozen from rust. Can I use PB blaster on it to free it up.? If that does not work do I replace the adjusting screw with a new stainless adjusting screw sold by parts people?
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
Theres a few parts that can bind due to rust. Theres some arms that do t hat automatic adjust when its used as well. But for the price you can replace both sides and its about the same as a tank of gas.
Emergency brake adjustment
