I recently replaced the emergency brake shoes with the proper diameter.

I have tried to adjust the parking brake by rolling downhill and pulling up on the brake.

There is almost no resistance at all when pulling up the e-brake handle.

Is there another way to adjust the cable? Any other clues as to what is going on?

Thanks

 

the manuel says it's self adjusting. give it some time.

 

How much time? It does not work at all, and has not worked for the past four years of owning this car. I have pulled up on the handle a bunch of times, there has to be some other way to go about this.

 

You need to pull the rear rotors and,using an inside/outside caliper,adjust the shoe out to the same diameter as the "drum"
Then back off the adjustment a few notches till the rotor will JUST slide back on by hand (not so tight you've got to hammer it on)

I'm not sure what the manual means by "self adjusting"- but it never helped mine either.

 

It is NOT self adjusting, you have to MANUALLY adjust the star wheel adjuster.

 

Thank you for the post. I used an electronic caliper to adjust the shoes to spec. I think the cable is the culprit

 

Are you reffering to the adjuster on the shoe itself? If so that has been adjusted properly and it is not working. There is absolutely no tension on the cable when it is pulled.

 

From the manual:

* Adjustments are not normally necessary after replacing the park brake lever or cables. The park brake is adjusted automatically by cycling the park brake lever three or four times.
* Never operate the park brake lever while the rotor is removed.
End Quote

 

As I have said in my private message, there are many issues with the ebrake system. the auto adjust feature will only take up the slack in the cable if the ebrake system is working and only to remove the slack in the cable.. this is done by rolling backward and snapping the handle up three times, this will adjust about 1/4 inch of cable.. the big problem is getting the star adjuster to work properly, have enough grease too allow the star to rotate the lock groove ( it could be seized ) . this difference between a proper adjustments and one that is not is only about three clicks. The problem with many drums is the quality control. the drum diameter sometimes is tapered 1 degree making the entry point tighter than the bottom ( deepest part of the drum ) If you run with the shoe on it will make this area ( contact area ) bigger than the rest of the drum so it will be very tight when going on and then once bottomed there is too much clearance. There should never be the need to replace the shoes.. Unless you have a pair of inside mics and a set of outside mics, you wont get this inter fit correct... the trick is to hand fit them to a point where you just can get them started , tap on them evenly until they are bottomed .AS long as you can get them on they wont be too tight. I know it doesn't sound right but this is the way its done. My ebrake use to go completely north at 90 degrees from the console.. after I made one adjustment 10 years a go my ebrake locks up at 50 degrees and completely disengages at 40 degrees. If you think my method will leave your ebrake engaged all the time... you will be amazed that you can actually park your car on the steepest hill, engage the ebrake and leave the car in neutral and there isn't a hint of movement.. now for the clincher.. your lever should be about 50 to 60 degrees from the console, now while the car is in neutral disengage the ebrake slowly and you will see the car start to roll down the hill with just about 10 degrees of release. you can then reengage the lever by slowly moving up 10 degrees and see the car will lock up at about 50 degrees. You can also see if the cable is in fact engaging the shes by slowly having some one pul up on the lever while you note if the shoes are expanding. this is tricky but it will tell you if you have another issue, broken linkage at the lever dried up grease and the pawl is not engaging etc.

 

There is no adjustment for the e-brake shoe to drum clearance. I don't care what the manual says...

I believe there is some type of automatic adjustment for the cable slack in the e-brake handle. I have never had one apart and can not confirm or deny this though. So, your problem could easily be in the handle assembly.

I personally adjust the shoes until they have just a little drag on the drum. On full drum brakes, I always adjusted until I couldn't turn the drum and then backed off until it dragged a little. These can't be adjusted with the disk on but I try to do a similar thing putting the drum on and pulling on the lever.

Peter

 

I looked at a Corvette for sale yesterday. The parking brake did not seem to hold very well the first time I lifted it. But by the third time I raised it, the brake was fine. Wondered why?

 

I used the star adjuster on mine and they hold like IRON now when I enguage the E-brake. The handle is about 45 degrees and holds great.

 

Are you calling the adjuster on the brake shoe the "star adjuster" if not where is this adjuster you are talking about?

 

My 2003 has no reference to adjusting the parking brake.

 

Cycling the brake handle will remove slack from the cable but does not adjust the shoes.

 

I would suggest you get a new manual:


Document ID# 775039
2003 Chevrolet Corvette
Park Brake Adjustment
Tools Required

J 21177-A Drum to Brake Shoe Clearance Gauge

Important



1. Apply and fully release the parking brake three times.
2. Verify that the parking brake lever releases completely.

 

What manual are you referring to?

Attached are the factory manuals on how to adjust the parkig brakeshoes and tensioning the cable by pulling on the handle three times.....

 

The Helms manual on DVD. What manual do you use?

 

Look above your last post. From the GM service manual.

Pulling the handle only adjusts the cable, not the shoes.

 

The Helms manual is the GM service manual.

I know cycling the handle adjusts the cable, not the shoes. I didn't say otherwise. I posted the information because no one else had and if you read the OP's post he says he believes his problem is too much slack in the cable. So I thought I would give him the info he requested.

You said in your manual there was no reference to adjusting the parking brake. I quote "My 2003 has no reference to adjusting the parking brake". I showed you there was. I thought I would help you out. Pardon me. It won't happen again