ever since i bought my car ive never been able to get the e brake to work. i can lift it up and itll actually go all the way up to where itll be completely vertical but it wont hold the rear wheels. i read on here something about the mid 80s camaros having a parking brake problem but i couldnt find more info on it. but i know that on my old honda when the e brake stopped holding you couldnt tighten up the adjuster, and i found the adjuster on my camaro but i havent tightened it yet because i wanted to figure out if it worked the same way on our cars. but the adjuster on my honda was under the console while this one is above the torque arm.

will simply turning and tightening the nut make my brakes work? or does adjusting the rear disc brakes happen elsewhere?

oh and i have an 86 camaro iroc-z with 4 wheel disc brakes.

 

Odds are your old style calipers are locked up. You can either replace or rebuild them, but you need to have the recall kit installed in order to make those older calipers work right. They are now discontinued but I have a few on the shelf. Personally I'd just upgrade to the newer rear disc style and have a modern and more reliable system on the car.

Ed

 

would swapping in new better calipers fix my problem or would i still need the recall kit?

 

What is this recall kit? I'm having issues with the parking brake on my 88 J65 brakes and the inspection place is failing the car because of it. The parking brakes don't hold anywhere near the required amount.

One caliper was messed up (seized, didn't fully release so was dragging) and I replaced it with one off my 87 which is getting the 12" rear brakes w/ PBR calipers but it's still not good enough. Weird since the car they came off made it through just fine.

So, I have 4 of these rear calipers, 2 on the car and the 2 take off spares from the other car. Would like to redo them so I have some working spares just in case. Buying new and sending back cores for core charge is expensive since I live in NL.

 

The long and short of it is in the following link:

http://members.shaw.ca/crussel/recalls/86c28/86c28.html

JamesC

 

Does not apply to 88 and the other caliper came off an 87. They are the same calipers. The old one from the 88 was shot, dust seal torn out and parking brake not releasing.

 

As long as they're the Delco-Moraine calipers, whether 82-86 or 87-88, I'd be suspicious. But then, I'm admittedly **** about such matters.

JamesC

 

They are the cast iron delco moraine calipers. The 87 ones worked fine. The 88 one was shot, the dis has no rust because it was dragging. The other dis is rusty as the car has sat for quite a while. I'm going to swap the other caliper too and the rotor with it. There's a 40% brake difference L&R.

 

If you keep those brakes I'd do it without hesitation. Other than upgrading it's the only correct way I know how to fix the issue. I do have the kits on hand BTW, last in the US that I know of.

Ed

 

what does the recall kit consist of?

 

You might consider reading the link I posted above.

JamesC

 

I got the brakes on the 88 fixed swapped in the ones from the 87 but the real problem was the rusty calipers were hanging on the abutment plate. I lubed the crap out of the guide bolts and the contact face of the caliper/abutment plate with some copper paste. Bolted on the disc and had a helper depress the brake to see if the caliper actually moved or if like before the whole (flimsy) plate was bending (the outer pad wouldn't make proper contact this way), after making sure the caliper floated fine I adjusted the parking brake and hot damn it actually works better than I expected it ever would...so before you start replacing stuff check that first.

 

the new calipers are on, and the parking lever does pull the cable and the lever at the calipers, but the pads are still not touching the rotor. also the actuator screw turns smoothly and the lever is working properly.

is it a matter of just pulling the lever 100 times till i feel some resistance?

 

You need to make sure the cables pull the actuating lever for the full stroke. If it does and the calipers are good, it should adjust in 5-10 pulls. You can buy reman calipers with the fix for <$80 around here.

 

my cables pull the lever, but it doesnt seem to pull all the way. is the cable stretched? or can i adjust it somehow?

 

You should bolt down the rotor and press on the brakes a few times so that the pads are against the rotor don't rely on the parking brake to do that.

 

The lever mount is six sided so you can take the lever off and move it in 60 deg increments. There is also an adjustment above the driveshaft for play. The levers have to move the full stroke (or close to it) for them to set properly.

Setting the parking brakes on these cars is one of my least favorite tasks.

 

pushing on the brake pedal doesnt seem to move the piston out far enough. also today i just went and spent 10 minutes pull on the e brake and i still had no brakes.

what should i do? shouldnt pushing the brake pedal alone push the piston out? or should i remove the wheels and try to adjust these brakes manually by moving the lever back and forth by hand?

 

If the lever is moving the full stoke (at least a couple inches) then I'd say your calipers need to be replaced or need the recall kits. It's the parking mechanism that sets the pads close to the rotor. Pushing the brake pedal won't do it. They are a PITA to get working correctly.

 

What are you saying? Of course the brake pedal sets the pads close to the rotor, the caliper floats and clamps it all down and then releases until the pads just touch and the pads shouldn't retract further, the compensation holes in the MC allow for the difference in fluid displacement. If what you are saying were true then you always have the pads off the rotors, requiring an insane amount of pedal travel even before the pads touch and they could not make up for pad & rotor wear.

Bolt down the rotor, push the brake pedal a couple of times (forcefully) and make sure the caliper floats and the bracket does not bend. When done the rotor should drag slightly on the pads, the pads should not be loose against the rotor, you should only be able to wiggle them ever so slightly. When that is done you can pull the parking brake making sure it goes through full travel and returns to the stop, if not adjust the parking brake. If you don't do this, the parking brake will never have enough leverage to apply significant force to the pads and squish the rotor tight.

 

That is what I'm saying. #16 is the adjustment screw. It's a one way ratchet. When it's not working the pads back away from the rotor too far. The brakes will still work, but the parking brake doesn't have enough travel. That's what the recall kit was all about.

 

When it's not working the parking brake does not adjust and the ratchet screw sits loose against the rear of the piston. However it doesn't mean that the pads will sit loose. If that's what you were saying then yes, if the ratchet screw sits loose the mechanism doesn't have anywhere near the travel needed to properly apply the parking brake.

 

Then we agree :-)

 

OK

 

okay lemme see if i get this straight

1. check if the lever goes through its full stroke or almost full stroke. if not then the cable must be tightened via the adjustment above the driveshaft.

2. if the lever does go through its full stroke and still doesnt push the piston out, then somethings wrong with the adjustment screw and needs the recall kit installed.

but as far as the pedal pushing the piston all the way out? would pushing down on the pedal move the piston at all? or is it required to adjust the brake first?

also my teacher told me i can take off the lever on the back and turn the screw by with a socket and get it out far enough that the pads seat against the rotor. but im kinda holding back from doing this since i hate having to undo the spring in the back.