65 Emergency Brake
I have tried multiple actions to try to get a solid emergency brake hold on a disc brake car and failed. My 64 was very good. Amy suggestions would be appreciated. The cables are all adjusted per the manual.
-
-
Re: 65 Emergency Brake
If all the cables are adjusted as per the manual and the cables both left and right move freely, I would say you have issues with the emergency brake shoe(s) adjustment inside the rear brake rotor(s) hat.
James -
Comment
-
Re: 65 Emergency Brake
Thank you I will look that up.Comment
-
Re: 65 Emergency Brake
On my 65, the dealer told me when I picked up the car that the emerg brake was not very reliable. It would work great if you tried to backup with it on. Going forward you had to really pull on the handle to get all the "clamping' effort you could and then it didn't really stop you from going forward.Comment
-
Re: 65 Emergency Brake
Robert
Are the parking brakes new or original? Same for the rotors.
What I would do is get the back of the car in the air, pull the tires, and manually push the lever for the shoes to see if it springs back and doesn't bind. Then adjust the star wheels to see if they will bind the shoes inside the rotor. If so back off until free and go back to manually pushing the lever- is it tight now, does it snap back? If so, you can adjust the shoes for clearance, I don't go by clicks, just free play. If you get both sides adjusted like this you know the shoes are correctly working and can go to the cables, many times they are stretched out and need to be replaced.
Now if you don't know the status of the parking brakes or the rotors are still riveted on then I would remove the rotors and see what is going on. Keep in mind if you break the rotor free you should deburr it and the flange- remove or grind flat the rivets or you will be dealing with runout issues next.
The parking brake system is not as good as the drum brake system that expanded the shoes but it can be set up to work decent. The shoes will pivot a little so if rusted they may drag if they don't snap back.Comment
-
Re: 65 Emergency Brake
There should be a procedure in the '65 Corvette Shop Manual Supplement and later CSMs. I believe the first step is to slacken the cable. Then use the star wheel to adjust the shoes as you would on a vintage car with non-self adjusting drum brakes. Then set the cable to spec.
The same parking brake design and adjustment procedure applies to my 1988 MBZ 190E 2.6. With time the lining appeared to glaze and the brake lost effectiveness. The cure was to lightly drag it on a down hill stretch to break the glaze and that worked a few times, but eventually it just wouldn't hold, so while doing a pad change I adjusted the parking brake per the service literature, and now it works perfect and holds a good grade.
I expect that the "mechanic" did not know how to properly adjust the parking brake per the shop manual procedure and just adjusted the cable. This is a reason why owners should have all the GM service and overhaul manuals for their car. If there is something you can't do give the manual or copy the requisite pages to the mechanic so he'll do it right the first time.
Improper adjustment procedure may be the primary reason why disk brake Corvettes have a reputation for weak parking brakes.
DukeComment
Comment