Tightening the e-brake

mp3-79bronco said:

pull the little plastic cover off around the handle and there is a 10mm nut on the side of the lever....tighten it

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Hi, just did rear brakes....It's been a while and had to do a learning curve of remember the piston is a twist in and not a C-clamper instead of looking online first!, darnit, hehe. anyways.......saw the importance of silicone lube after i put brakes back on and also parking brake isn't tight enough and I think I ran out of thread on the nut by parking brake, so my questions are....

1. Can I lube the rear calipers even though I assembled everything completely?

2. Can I get to the allen bolt without jacking up the car or disassembling everything to I can make the piston tighter so I can get more slack on the parking brake bolt so I can get a properly working parking brake?

3. Or should I just go to a brake place and tell em I'm over it and don't want to spend anymore time on my amateur job and just have them do the above two mentioned things for hopefully a low cost?

Thanks and please help! : )

ps. Oh, and I did all this with just the spare tire jack that is stowed in car trunk, hah, I dunno if that's good or not....

The most important part to lube on the rear calipers is the slider pins. They have to be taken apart again to do that. If the pins are sticky the rear pads can drag and wear them out quickly.

You can access the allen screw without removing the wheels but it's kinda hard to fit under there to do it. If you can squeeze yourself under, then you can do it.
DON'T CRAWL UNDER YOUR CAR WITH ONLY THE JACK SUPPORTING IT.

You should loosen up your P-brake handle adjustment before adjusting the allen screw then adjust it back after the allen screws are finished.





You may have screwed up the internals of your rear calipers by turning the piston instead of turning the allen screw.



What you should really do is take each wheel off again and grease the sliders and adjust the allen screw at the same time. You can reach the allen screw from the side of the car without being under it. If you're gonna be a dumbass and not use T-stands, then when you take the wheel off lay it down and push it under the car near the jacking point is so if the damn thing falls it's less inclined to land on you. (that can keep it from landing on the rotor too,... if it misses your head, arms and legs.)

Your calipers may still be OK but keep an eye out for leaks,.. you may have caused a leak or wrecked the internals enough that they won't self-adjust anymore.

P-Funk! said:

You need to ensure the entire system is working properly.

1. Jack and check the caliper adjustments. Tighten the allen screws until the brakes drag. Back off a bit until the wheel can be turned easily.

2. Adjust the 10mm bolt until after the handle is released it starts to cause the wheels to drag. Back off until they don't.

This is as good as they can be.

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This is the exactly correct way to do it right here. Plus making sure the nut on the cable at the handle is tight.

Don't forget to check the nut behind the wheel...

If that nut has any screws loose, then extra precautions must be taken.

(lol is implied here as with most of my posts)

Anyone know if the parking break release button can be flipped upside down easily? The "chrome" plating is flaking off on the top of my button. I may just need to buy a new one. I like the metallic sound the button makes when I press it.


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katapaltes said:

Anyone know if the parking break release button can be flipped upside down easily? The "chrome" plating is flaking off on the top of my button. I may just need to buy a new one. I like the metallic sound the button makes when I press it.


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Given there is a spring of some sort unDer it I would say proceed with caution but it does turn under minimal pressure and I would recommend using a rag under your pliers but odds are you are just going to mess up the remaining chrome. But you can easily rotate it to the position you are looking for yes.