david55838

I asked the shop who put on my new shocks to try and adjust my parking brake. It was clicking down to the floor but not holding the car. They adjusted the cable, so now the pedal clicks down midway and stops, but still no holding ability. They claim I would need to get new rear calipers, since there's no adjustment in the disc, like there is on older Mercedes.

Anyone have ideas on this? I love to work on the car in our slanted driveway, and hate when the car rolls into the Park gear.

Thanks.

ThePackRat

Sadly this was one case where the lesser setup of drums was actually the better setup, as the rear disks on the 79-85 E-Bodies were notorious for this.

I had an 85 that would never "keep" for more than a few weeks.

Made me miss my 81 with drums all the more.

Previous thread :

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ake-issue.html

david55838

Thanks, Packy.

I guess this is a no win. It seems to hold the car from going backwards a bit, but not forwards. I can live with it for now. This is far from a daily driver.

rustyroger

Callipers with incorporated e-brakes can be rebuilt, I've done a few, but how much is a new one if you can still get one?.
Any mechanic worthy of that title should know that simply tightening the cable on a malfunctioning e-brake almost certainly won't do any good.

Over here an e-brake that doesn't work means it won't pass its annual roadworthiness test.

Roger.

MDchanic

You may be able to get a bit more pressure out of the e-brake by stepping down hard on the service brake while simultaneously stepping down on the e-brake pedal.

- Eric

david55838

Rustyroger,

These mechanics obviously were not worthy of the title. I can live with it for now. Such a shame - it's so easy to adjust the ebrake on the older Mercedes.

brown7373

I used to have a Pontiac 6000STE (84 & 86) with 4 wheel disks and had a similar problem after I replaced the calipers with rebuilt ones. The rear calipers were adjusted when the parking brake was applied. It would ratchet the pads closer to the rotor. Failure to apply the parking brake regularly would eventually cause the rears to corrode and freeze and become useless. So if you haven't applied the parking regularly, the pads may be too far away from the drum to work properly.


My problem got worse when I replaced 3 sets of rear calipers before I realized that the ratcheting action was working in reverse. Applying the parking brake ratcheted the pads AWAY from the rotor, making the rears useless in short order. They were not installed upside down, as they went on only one way with the bleed screw on top. I finally convinced NAPA and Cardone that they were incorrectly rebuilt. I am not sure if they put the ratcheting mechanism on the wrong side or if there was a similar caliper that worked in reverse, but they did finally get me a set of rear calipers that worked correctly and I never had another problem. At least once a week, I firmly applied the parking brake and the calipers stayed adjusted properly for both normal stopping and parking brake use.

brown7373

I think I remember the Owners Manual outlining the proper way and reason to use the parking brake regularly.

rustyroger

Absolutely use the parking (or emergency) brake regularly and often. Nothing like not using something for it to stop working.

Roger.