Fixed e break.. Now brakes are locked up..

[billison]

Ok. I replaced my equalizer cable in my 92. Once I got it in ( pain in the butt) it seemed to work fine. With the car still in the air, I tested my regular rear breaks, then the ebrake. Again all seemed fine. Once the lever was let down and pulled back the the promlem started. The handle will only pull up about 1/4 of the way and the rear breaks stay on. With it in the air and the lever all the way down the brakes grab hard enough to kill the engine when put in gear. With it on the ground it cjearky grabs . The cable goes on the bottom of the handle and both rear cables were in their .. Guides. I have no idea how long the ebake has been broke .


It's hard and the wife wants to see twilight so I'm done for now.

Thoughts?

 

[jrichker]

The Ebrake adjuster works in a similar manner to the clutch adjuster. You have lift the ratchet pawl to loosen the cable.

 

[gearheadboy]

Probably why it was a rip to install. (I spell like a champ) LMAO

 

[tca7291]

Yup, it sounds like your adjusters are over adjusted (too tight). If you can, pull your drums back off and loosen the adjusters back up, and the best way to get them set right after you got them loosened back up, from my experience, is to drive the car in reverse and pull the e-brake a few times and the adjusters will re-adjust themselves back to where they need to be.

 

[billison]

Where are the adjusters? Located? On/in the drums or where?

 

[tca7291]

When you take the drum off, it is like a screw with two ends on it that are notched, and there is an access hole on the inside of the back plate, let me take a look at one of my service manuals and see if I can get a picture of a diagram for you.

 

[tca7291]

This is your brake adjuster, and if you can't get the drums off because of the brakes holding them then:

 

[tca7291]

Hope that helps!

 

[billison]

so.... why would it work the first time then do this? and any idea why i can only pull the lever only 1/4 of the way up? Does the adjuster affect it this much? Do I have to adjust it on both sides?

Now that I think of it when the handle was up at first, only the passenger side was engaged, but Now both sides are... hmmm

 

[billison]

also, the brakes worked fine before I fixed the ebrake... hmmmm i'm gonna go mess with it for a few.

 

[tca7291]

There also could be a broken spring (pretty common in the drum brake setup), and yes the adjusters would have to be reset on both sides. The e-brake works a cam inside of the setup that if I remember correctly, works the front shoe, I wish I could help more, but I am not a professional mechanic, and it is hard for me to explain/understand exactly what is going on without seeing it in person...

 

[tca7291]

This is what my service manual has on the e-brake.

 

[tca7291]

Repost of page one sense it was so blurry...

 

[billison]

the problem seems to be in the drivers side, i've been fighting to get the drum off for about 2 hours. it's getting one more go them bed...

 

[tca7291]

Try loosening the adjuster from the backplate, as per the page that I posted earlier, and that will relieve the pressure from the shoes on the drum, and it should come off easier. It sounds like that side for whatever reason got over tensioned and is causing it to hang up. You can loosen the tensioner from the back plate with two flathead screwdrivers through the little rubber plug on the backplate. I've had to deal with that before myself. One screwdriver you need to push the ratchet arm back off of the tensioner, and the other to turn the tensioner.

 

[tca7291]

 

[billison]

Took all night but I got it, I have no clue what the issue was, but with both drums off, the ebrake goes up all the way. The drivers side pads got trashed in the removal so this little project is over till friday, so I'll be installing new pads and adjusting them I guess.. If they are adjusted too tight it'lll not let the drum back on right? It's been like 10 years since I did drums...

 

[billison]

also, what is this empty bracket?

 

[tca7291]

Looks like the quad shock bracket.

 

[billison]

But our cars don't have quad shocks.. Right