emergency brake adjustment
Burning Brakes
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 1,163
Likes: 4
From: Concord California
You have to remove the rear tire and ajust the star wheel drum to push out the piston that makes the brake shoes spread outwards rubbing the inner drum of the rear rotor. it's not that hard, but it takes time. Jack up the rear, supporting the front tires and "DO NOT SET THE PARKING BRAKES", then remove the wheels, the star wheel is at the 6 position, spin it to expand the piston, look at it and you can see it open up. then when the rotors start to rub on the E brake shoes, turn another 1/2 and stop, that should give you some bit. Good luck.
Administrator
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 368,136
Likes: 24,734
From: In a parallel universe. Currently own 2014 Stingray Coupe.
C7 of the Year - Modified Finalist 2021
MO Events Coordinator
St. Jude Co-Organizer
St. Jude Donor '03 thru '25
NCM Sinkhole Donor
CI 5, 8 & 11 Veteran
Here is a copy of a post made by Evil-Twin and mchaney here on the forum quite a while ago: It basically says the same thing as the one above, but with perhaps a bit more detail.
Take the rear rotors off and adjust the star wheels. Adjust the wheel until the brake pad started to make contact with the rotor and scrape a little as the rotor was put back on. There’s a little lip on the edge of the rotor so if you adjust it until it scrapes that lip, when the rotor is all the way on, it will still have clearance and not scrape.
To adjust the parking brake cable, once a month let your car roll backwards and pull-up hard on the emergency brake enough to slam the car to a stop. You only need to be going 1 or 2 miles per hour… do this three times. You cannot over adjust it. It may only click once or not at all.
To start the procedure, make sure your parking brake is OFF (NOT engaged) and the car is in park or in gear. Just jack up and remove one of the rear wheels. Then remove the two bolts holding the brake caliper on. These are the two larger bolts around back, behind the rotor. Then just slide the caliper with shoes still attached off the rotor and set it on a box or some other object placed under the car. Don’t hang it by the brake line or otherwise it can cause stress to that line. The rotor should then pull right off the hub. If not, give the center of the rotor (near the lug stems) a whack or two with a hammer (don’t bang on the rotor surfaces).
I had to tap several times to loosen them up. Once you get the rotor off, you’ll see the little star wheel to the side of the giant brake shoe. You’ll see a small clearance between the star wheel and its “plunger.” The object is to expand this clearance. I used a sharp screwdriver, placed the blade between two of the teeth and tapped lightly with a hammer to turn the wheel (you should only have to tap very lightly). This just seemed to be the easiest method. Don’t use a fat headed screwdriver or tap too far each time because you don’t want the screwdriver to slip out of the notch and dent/strip the teeth on the wheel. If you are careful, this should work fine. I suspect they are all the same, so you would tap the wheel so that your screwdriver is going from right to left to open it up (increase the gap).
As you open it up little by little, put the rotor back on a few times during this process to see when it starts to get tight. When the brake shoe expands to the size of the outer lip on the rotor, it will start to get difficult to get the rotor back on as the shoe will scrape the lip as you put it back on. When you put the rotor back on, you should be feeling some resistance from the shoe as it scrapes the outer lip on the rotor. IF THERE IS A LOT OF RESISTANCE, DON’T FORCE THE ROTOR BACK ON!!! If you do and decide you want to back it off a little, you may not be able to get the rotor back off without pulling that big brake shoe off with it, and that could be a real pain. Just keep testing it with the rotor as you go and as soon as you feel a light resistance when putting the rotor back on, that should be good enough. As a precaution, you can jiggle the rotor clockwise/counterclockwise on the hub just to make sure that it still turns freely. It should move a few degrees easily both ways as there is a little slack between the rotor and the lug stems, and some more slack in the CV’s.
I doubt it is possible to over-adjust the mechanism and still be able to get the rotors back on because there is at least a 1mm lip on the inside of the rotor and that is what scrapes when you put the rotor back on, not the braking surface. Once you clear that lip, there should be plenty of slack so that the shoes don’t scrape the brake surface.
As they say, assembly is the reverse of the above. I would do both sides like this without messing with the parking brake lever in between. During the procedure when doing both sides in the rear, don’t fool with the brake lever (especially when the rotor is off).
Take the rear rotors off and adjust the star wheels. Adjust the wheel until the brake pad started to make contact with the rotor and scrape a little as the rotor was put back on. There’s a little lip on the edge of the rotor so if you adjust it until it scrapes that lip, when the rotor is all the way on, it will still have clearance and not scrape.
To adjust the parking brake cable, once a month let your car roll backwards and pull-up hard on the emergency brake enough to slam the car to a stop. You only need to be going 1 or 2 miles per hour… do this three times. You cannot over adjust it. It may only click once or not at all.
To start the procedure, make sure your parking brake is OFF (NOT engaged) and the car is in park or in gear. Just jack up and remove one of the rear wheels. Then remove the two bolts holding the brake caliper on. These are the two larger bolts around back, behind the rotor. Then just slide the caliper with shoes still attached off the rotor and set it on a box or some other object placed under the car. Don’t hang it by the brake line or otherwise it can cause stress to that line. The rotor should then pull right off the hub. If not, give the center of the rotor (near the lug stems) a whack or two with a hammer (don’t bang on the rotor surfaces).
I had to tap several times to loosen them up. Once you get the rotor off, you’ll see the little star wheel to the side of the giant brake shoe. You’ll see a small clearance between the star wheel and its “plunger.” The object is to expand this clearance. I used a sharp screwdriver, placed the blade between two of the teeth and tapped lightly with a hammer to turn the wheel (you should only have to tap very lightly). This just seemed to be the easiest method. Don’t use a fat headed screwdriver or tap too far each time because you don’t want the screwdriver to slip out of the notch and dent/strip the teeth on the wheel. If you are careful, this should work fine. I suspect they are all the same, so you would tap the wheel so that your screwdriver is going from right to left to open it up (increase the gap).
As you open it up little by little, put the rotor back on a few times during this process to see when it starts to get tight. When the brake shoe expands to the size of the outer lip on the rotor, it will start to get difficult to get the rotor back on as the shoe will scrape the lip as you put it back on. When you put the rotor back on, you should be feeling some resistance from the shoe as it scrapes the outer lip on the rotor. IF THERE IS A LOT OF RESISTANCE, DON’T FORCE THE ROTOR BACK ON!!! If you do and decide you want to back it off a little, you may not be able to get the rotor back off without pulling that big brake shoe off with it, and that could be a real pain. Just keep testing it with the rotor as you go and as soon as you feel a light resistance when putting the rotor back on, that should be good enough. As a precaution, you can jiggle the rotor clockwise/counterclockwise on the hub just to make sure that it still turns freely. It should move a few degrees easily both ways as there is a little slack between the rotor and the lug stems, and some more slack in the CV’s.
I doubt it is possible to over-adjust the mechanism and still be able to get the rotors back on because there is at least a 1mm lip on the inside of the rotor and that is what scrapes when you put the rotor back on, not the braking surface. Once you clear that lip, there should be plenty of slack so that the shoes don’t scrape the brake surface.
As they say, assembly is the reverse of the above. I would do both sides like this without messing with the parking brake lever in between. During the procedure when doing both sides in the rear, don’t fool with the brake lever (especially when the rotor is off).
