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I have read some threads about parking brake problems, adjusting etc but haven´t found an answer to my troubles.
The lever goes all the way up and the parking is still not good enough.
I read in the FSM (for year -89) about disabling the automatic wire tensioner but didn´t find how to do that so I simply removed the hole lever mechanism and removed the wire from it.
And I found the small adjusting screws on the calipers, M6 stop screws, or if you say set screws? I usually speak Swedish so I might be using the wrong terms sometimes. :-)
But the stop screws seem to be to short. I screw them in a lot and still don´t get the parking brake to work as expected. On the right side the lever on the caliper even bottoms out before the parking brake really starts to work.
You might think this is because the pads are worn out but they are almost new and very thick.
What is wrong?
I´ll try to find longer screws tomorrow but they will be to short when the brake pads wear.
I have attached a picture of the stop screw and the part that goes from the stop screw to the other side, the side where the lever works.
And a picture from the FSM showing the caliper.
#11 is the stop screw that seems to be to short.
#5 is the lever that bottoms out on the right caliper.
Over a week and no answer?
Are there no one that has been working on the parking brake on a C4?
Might help if you mentioned the year of car. I'm assuming that's one of the newer ones that used the rear rotor as the parking brake (as I understand it). Mine has a drum type parking brake system in it.
It is a -90.
(it actually says -90 in the title of the thread :-) )
So yes, it uses the rotor as parking brake.
I have found another problem and that was the front parking brake wire. The outer casing was rusty. This MIGHT have caused the casing to flex when I pulled the handle. This might have caused at least some of the long travel for the parking brake lever.
I have bought a new wire and will change it tomorrow.
I will also change the rear right wire since it has some friction. Not much, but still more than nothing.
The left rear wire works perfect, and they just had one rear wire in stock so I will have to use the left one.
But the adjusting of the caliper still confuses me. There are simply not enough adjusting for compensating for worn brake linings. Not that my linings are worn, but this still confuses me a lot.
I will get back as soon as I have changed the wires tomorrow.
Thanks for asking and I apologize for not replying to the thread as I had promised.
I changed the wire to the rear wheel since the old one had some friction.
I also changed the front wire, not for friction but since the cover had corroded so much that it was broken and probably created a lot of "spongy feeling" in the parking brake lever.
I also fabricated spacers in different thicknesses to put where the red arrows point. They compensate for worn brake linings so the parking brake mechanism can work in its most effective range.
New linings = no spacers.
Almost new linings = thin spacers.
Slightly worn linings = slightly thicker spacers.
Etc.
The wire for the left rear wheel was good so I didn´t have to change that one.
The self adjusting in the lever doesn´t seem to run that good and I spoke to a mechanic at http://www.vetteparts.se/ and he recognized thte problem and said that it is often occurring. He said that it happens because the grease has hardened over the years.
So I made a turnbuckle instead of the short wire between the wires for left and right rear wheel.
See the attached picture. To the left is the wire, to the right is the turnbuckle.
The turnbuckle is a little longer since the new right rear wire from Delco was to short.
Adjusting procedure:
1. Make sure everything runs nice.
2. Remove the wires from the calipers.
3. Fabricate and mount the spacers. The thickness should be as thick as possible as long as brake doesn´t drag.
4. Adjust the turnbuckle as hard as possible as long as brake doesn´t drag.
This worked for me. Today (!) I was at the annual motor vehicle inspection and the motor vehicle examiner drove the Vette down into the brake test, pulled the parking brake and the Vette jumped out of the brake test.
The spacers was actually cut and turned from a prop shaft from an old Volvo 244 from the seventies. The Volvo was scrapped decades ago but the prop shaft has been laying in one of my barns for some unknown reason, until now. :-)
Sorry just saw this.. When I got my 90.. Parking brake did not hold. So I replaced the calipers (I rebuilt them) E-brake did not work.. I bought another set of used calipers.. same issue. I bought a 3rd set from a friend that I knew had a working E-brake.. they worked.. nothing else really different.
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C4 -90 parking brake trouble
