The parking brakes on my '98 coupe only work on occasion, and I am not understanding why this is. Hopefully someone here can help me troubleshoot the problem and fix it.

Here's what I can tell you:

1) The parking brakes should be adjusted correctly on my car. When they are working, I will periodically drive in reverse and then apply the parking brakes. My understanding is that the parking brakes are self-adjusting when this method is used.

2) If I had to guess, I'd say that the problem appears to be in whatever mechanism is attached to the handle. Sometimes I can pull the handle up and the parking brakes will set securely. Other times I can pull the handle up with no resistance. Still other times I can pull the handle up with minimal resistance only at the upper end of travel.

3) I've played around with this a lot over the past month. Often when there is no resistance or little resistance, I can repeatedly pull up on the handle and will eventually get a small amount of resistance. A few more pulls usually brings back normal, increasing resistance as the handle is pulled further back. A quick reverse of the car and a final pull on the handle will set everything back to normal. Unfortunately there are other times when no matter how many times I pull on the handle I cannot get any resistance (zero parking brakes).

4) As a side to all of this, I've been wondering about something. When there is no resistance in the parking brake handle, what position are the parking brakes in? My thought (and hope!) is that they are completely disengaged, but I'm not sure that this is always the case.

Thanks,
LO PHAT

Note: I have searched the various related threads on this forum, but I didn't find anything about this particular issue. I can provide more information if anyone needs it.

 

 

Go here; http://www.ronjpics.com/Corvettestuff.htm

click on "parking brake adjuster" and follow directions

Good luck,

 

I will tell you that this does absolutely nothing. There is nothing inside the parking brake drum that will allow it to auto-adjust. Reversing and applying it will do nothing.

Peter

 

It might be true on some cars with drum rear brakes but not the Vette.

Bill