Anyone know the procedure for adjusting the emergency brake? Pull up all the way and the car still rolls. Brakes pads still fine at 24K.

Is this a DIY adjustment or does have go back to a GM stealer.

 

I'd like to know too! Mine does the same thing.

 

It's self adjusting. If you let the car roll backwards (don't get crazy, just roll not haul ***) and pull the handle up it will take care of the slack for you.

 

Tried that like 20 times and that does not work. Infact I am getting frustrated because my parking brake will sometimes catch if the car moves backwards but does nothing if the car is to roll forward. SOmetimes it does absolutely nothing. Really is annoying. Does anyone know of a real fix besides pulling it up while rolling backwards? that just does not work.

Thanks

 

I just replaced the parking brakes on my 2000. First off, the parking brake is inside the drum portion of your rear brakes. The only way to see them is to remove the wheels, calipers, and then the disc/drums. I doubt that they are worn out at 24k so I wouldn't start there. The easiest thing to check is to make sure the cables are still applying tension properly. Pull the brake on as far as you can. Then go to the rear of the vehicle and look at the backside of the disc. There should be a cable end that hooks to a dogleg. It'll be located just behind and below where the axle joins the backing plate. What your looking for is that BOTH sides are tight enough that you can't easily move the cables. When I did this I fought that the actuator inside my driver side parking brake assembly had failed . This allowed enough slack that the cable couldn't pull enough tension on the good brake to hold the car.
If that looks good : There is a "self-adjusting" tensioner on the parking brake handle itself. They are famous for freezing up due to lack of lube. The repair involves disassembly of the lower console and then removing the parking brake handle assembly. Once you have it out you can squirt lube on the adjusting mechanism and work it back and forth until it frees up. There is a posting on the forum for how to do this and saw a link to it about a week ago. Hopefully someone will chime in with the link as it had some great pictures etc....
Hope it helps. P.S. If you feel tempted to take the rear discs off , be VERY careful. If you pull the pads away from the retaining clips You join us in the club of those who have spent hours trying to get that Bast--- back on.

 

Maybe this will help?

 

awesome writeup thanks very much for posting that. It also asnwered my question about why mine will not auto adjust. My e-brake handle goes up all the way and doesnt do anything. Cool now I have a project for this weekend :-)

 

I can never get the tech tips to load for me... It always times out or something... Can you copy and paste it to this thread please?
Thanks!
Vaughn

 

As requested......

Parking Brake Adjustment -- 1 of 1
Date Published: 2002-05-01

Submitter's Name: Bill Matera
Email Address: wmatera@snip.net
Corvetteforum.com Member Alias: Evil-Twin

I posted this fix several years ago, but it was lost in the software upgrade... When My C5 was new the e brake barely worked,, I took it to the dealer, and was told that brakes are a wear item and that I would have to pay for new shoes.. the car had less than 1000 miles on it .. the e brake only engages when the car is stopped so how could they be worn.. Any way I decided to take a look ans see if i could do anything..I was not crazy about the dealer touching my car anyway.. OK.. here we go.. the e brake works similar to the e brake on most cars with rear drum brakes.. with that in mind... jack up the rear of the car...remove the wheels...then remove the bolts for the calipers...then the calipers and pads...you will see the caliper bracket.. it has two bolts that hold this to the brake backing plate.. they are very very tight... but they will come off ( They are 125 ft pounds with loctite)... Once the bracket is off you can remove the rotor ( make sure the e brake is not engaged ).....Next.. you will see how the system works.. it has a set of shoe brakes .. and the rotor has an internal drum... In the last few years I have found that many many C5 come from the factory with poorly adjusted e brakes... Now locate the star adjuster.... turn it out to make the shoes grow in diameter...( Mine were out 33 clicks)... I did ten clicks at a time and the slid the rotor back on.. I did three sets of ten before I could feel any drag... I then clicked five more and could not get the rotor on...I then backed off two clicks and got the rotor on.. it was tight when I started it on the shoes but when i finally seated it it was perfect.. I then did the other side.. it was out exactly the same amount.... I then put everything back...Now for the test...When I engaged the e brake.. it locked up the brakes at a point about 45 degrees.... 90 degrees being straight up.. the lock up was so positive...I knew I did it right..next .. to check the release .. I took the car to a hill... set the e brake .. car in neutral and it stayed there ... then to check on the release.. I slowly disengaged the ebrake...and found that the shoes where totally retracted after only an inch of lever release...after this fix I could stop the car using only the ebrake with the car doing ten miles an hour...The ebrake also has an auto adjust feature.. but it will only work if your e brake lever is between 45 degrees and 55 degrees..if your ebrake is out further than that the e beake will not auto adjust..... ( AUTOADJUST feature ) roll the car backwards on a hill.. or in reverse @ 5 mph..pull up on the e brake lever... this will slam your car to an abrupt stop.. the engagement of the shoes to the drum while the car is moving backwards will cause the shoe assembly to flex.. it is the flex that causes the blade to click the adjusting star one click... Do this three or four times and it will expand your shoes.. you can not over tighten thes shoes... if it needs two clicks to get to max... and you do four clicks.. it will only adjust the star two clicks.. Also remember to use loctite on the brackets and caliper bolts..If you have any questions on this repair .. feel free to e mail me or instant message me.. Good Luck.. Many people have emailed me with their positive results from this fix... Bill ( Evil-Twin )

 

here's the thread to follow for fixing the wratchet mechanism for the parking brake lever

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...026&forum_id=1