Adjust / maintain e-brake?

[free5ty1e]

So, it has come to my attention that my e-brake is weaker than it used to be on my 94 ss. It would not hold enough to prevent rolling backwards on a hill without being parked in reverse (which I do anyway but still, cant let the car warm up while parked on a hill without me in the car and my foot on the brake.)

My 92 ss has had a useless e-brake for a long time but at least it has a park gear.

Anyone know how to service the e-brake? Whats required and how should I start troubleshooting?


Thanks!

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[rallyak]

To adjust them I always pull the rear rotors off and adjust the pads up. When you are looking at the e-brake assembly the adjuster is on the bottom, turn the adjustment wheel a little and make sure the rotor still slides on, continue that tell the pads are rubbing slightly but your still able to remove the rotor. If its to tight back it back down and with your palms hit the pads back and forth to unstick them.

Another trick that I do is adjust them and pull the e-brake a few times then check the adjustment by turning the rotor around and you should feel slight rubbing of the pads on rotors. Change sides and repeat.

After you adjust the pads it should feel better but there is one more adjustment you can make. Under the console there you can adjust the cable (they stretch over the years) by removing the blank cover on your console and you will see the double nut (10mm)on a cable tighten that till the slack it out of the cable. Now your e-brake should feel nice and shouldn't come up past half way.

I hope some of this makes sense.

[Legacy777]

You can see the adjuster in some of the pics at the top of this page

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/images/swap/06

and at the bottom of this one

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/images/swap/08

[free5ty1e]

Thanks guys! Good stuff!

I may be starting to understand what's going on back there but I do believe I might need info on more of a basic level at this point:

Am I seeing correctly in your photos Josh? Do we have drum e-brakes? That is certainly new territory for me, I'll have to learn more before attempting anything.

Do we have replacement e-brake pads too that I should find a source for, or do we just get OEM parts? I'm guessing the pads in my '92 are probably worn pretty good.

[rallyak]

Basically yes the e-brake is drum brakes. As for replacing the pads they should be fine, you really don't ware them out generally, they are only used when the car is stopped. I have replaced mine (not that mine were bad) with a used set off an auto car. They looked brand new and they were cheep. Also if your cables are bad grab them out of and auto car, all of that stuff is still new sense you don't use it for parking like 5spd's.

[alexandermf]

Soo I've been reading up on this problem all morning...I took my center console off and tried to tighten that bolt for the slack but it just tightens and loosens as soon as i let go.. soo confused! So its like I turn the bolt a half to full turn and it turns itself back like it's warping the cable(twisting it) when I try to tighten. Does this mean I need to do the back rotor adjustment to fix it? As of right now I have no ebrake because it's sooo weak and bad

[rallyak]

Did you loosen the jam nut? There are two nuts on there.

[alexandermf]

Well I see the two nuts on top of eachother. Loosen the top one then tighten bottom or what?

[rallyak]

Yes

[alexandermf]

They sre like stuck together, turning together, can't loosen the top to tighten the bottom. Am I doing something wrong

[free5ty1e]

Thanks for the photo!

I would imagine that you'll need 2 wrenches, one for each nut...so you can hold one while turning the other.

I believe in this case, you would hold the bottom nut still while trying to loosen the top nut.

Although I've not yet done any of this.

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[alexandermf]

I've tried that they won't budge off each other... Maybe someone whose done it can chime in

[free5ty1e]

Hmm...got any PB blaster or wd40 even? That stuff can help a lot getting bolts and nuts unstuck...spray thread and between nuts, let soak in for 5 mins, tap with a rubber mallet, try wrenches again.

Other than that yeah im out of helpful comments lol

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[rallyak]

One on top and one on the bottom is the way I do it. After you get them loose the top one should spin easily, then tighten the lower nut down to take the slack out of the cable. Also with the handle down you can pull on the cable (where the two cables connect to the single cable) toward the front of the car and feel the slack. Pull on it and tighten the nut down at the same time.

I just did this on my wife's car last week.

[Legacy777]

Use the closed end of the wrench on the lower nut and a deep socket on the top nut. This will give you a little extra leverage and hopefully not round off the edges of the bottom nut.

[alexandermf]

We adjusted by rear rotor way, all good