The parking brake on my 96 LT1 works (it will stop the car, well, slowly stop the car), but when I use it as a parking brake it wont stay engaged. I do not hear any ratcheting and the brake light comes on when I lift it, but once I lower it, the brake light shuts off and the parking brake is disengaged. Where should I start? Any ideas of what it may be? It has not worked since I got the car almost a year ago, but I dont park on hills so it was not a big deal. Everything on the car works perfectly (knock on wood), except this parking brake and I want to fix it...

Thanks!

 

Sounds like the rachet stop mechanism is stuck.

The way the parking brake mechanism works is there is a spring loaded 'stopper', which is normally engaged, but when the button (on the forward end of the pull-arm) is depressed, it disengages the 'stopper'.

Normally, to engage the parking brake is to pull-up the arm with a mild amount of force, without depressing the button (and then lower the arm, without depressing the button, to get it out of the way so that the driver can exit the car -- should not feel any spring tension).

And to disengage, depress the button while pulling-up a bit more, and then while still depressing the button, lower the arm (should feel spring tension pulling the arm down).

If when you pull up the arm, without depressing the button, it does not stay 'engaged', either the button is somehow staying depressed, or the metal-bar from the button to the 'stopper' is damaged, or the 'stopper' is rusted or needs to be lubed, or, it was 'pinned' to stay open (technique when servicing the parking brake).

To inspect, there are 2-3 screws which hold the trim-cover onto the mechanism (may need to move the seat all the way back, or might be easiest to just remove the seat -- 4 bolts and a couple of electrical connectors).

 

My LT4 had this problem when I first acquired it. The grease that the factory applied to the ratchet pawl mechanism had hardened up a bit, and the ratchet would not reliably engage. I removed the bottom seat cushion from the frame for ease of access (did not remove the seat frame from the car), then removed the plastic cover from the brake mechanism. I then applied a drop of light oil to the sticky pivot point, and all was well again. This was two years ago, and the problem has just now begun to reoccur. I'm sure another drop of oil will solve it once again. This is very likely what's going on with yours, too.

Live well,

SJW

 

Same problem w/ mine, same solution. About once a year I lube the mechanism and it's fine.
-pete

 

Thanks Guys
I just bought my second C4, a 90 convert. The previous owner told me that the parking brake just didn't work, and he just left it in gear. Not good.

Long story short, disassembly and a couple of shots of Kroil, and manually freeing up stuff that looked like it was supposed to move, viola !
Now I've got a parking brake that works perfectly.

What a nice surprise. I never would have thought it was so simple 'til I read this post.

 

How hard is it to get the bottom part of the seat out to get to the side of the parking brake???

 

The lower seat cushion lifts out. There's a wire loop hook that locks it in place (hooks over the lower front edge of the frame -- stick your hand down in front of the seat, and feel for it). Unhook it and the seat cushion will lift out, leaving the frame behind. I leave the cushions on both of my C4s unhooked at all times so as to be able to lift the cushions out instantly. Makes cleaning much easier.

Live well,

SJW

 

Thanks!!!! I fixed it!!!! Its amazing how something so simple can cause the parking brake from holding!!! A little WD40 and it works perfectly now!

 

Glad to hear your E-brake is happy once again. Congrats. An easy fix is always a nice surprise.

Live well,

SJW

 

That happened to my 95. A little KROIL on the mechanisms and all is well.

 

Hi SJW - I have this problem with my 96 vette. How did you get the screws out w/o removing the whole seat? I see no way to do this as the screw locations are (of course) blocked by the frame.

 

Just move the seat forward or back depending on what you need and use a small screw driver or a ratchet and Philips bit...Let me know if this works for ya!

 

The trick is to make sure you raise or lower the seat to get to the screws. Thanks!

After some fiddling around, I found that the only place you really need to clean is the ratchet mechanism which moves with the button on the handle. This is located at the front/left part of the e-brake. The ratchet looks like a small lever that pivots up and down. Mine would not move until I pressed on it a few times. Just wiggle it a little then get in there with a little WD-40 and a toothbrush and hit the ratchet, pivot point and the little gear below that engages the brake.
Raiise and lower the e-brake handle several times so you can get the WD40 into all areas around the pivot and the ring rear. You will soon start to hear the ratchet catch on the gear after a thorough cleaning and voila! You really don't need to clean anywhere else as the rest of the mechanism should not affect the catching of the brake. I did a light coat of WD 40 on the whole thing just for old times sake.

Now, since I did do this by simply removing the seat cushion as previously described, you might know that I discovered something in the process. When I bought the car, I was missing a PKE so I ended up buying one after the original went belly up. The owner and I looked all over for it, but I just figured it disappeared in the ether. Well, you can guess - it was under the cushion. So, this little job turned out to be pretty good. Now, i just have to see if the original PKE works with a new battery!

 

BTW - if anyone wants to see a picture of the exposed e-brake mechanism, let me know. I can email it (can't figure out how to post it here).