I was adding new calipers and rotors on my IROC with rear disc brakes and noticed that the drivers side Ebrake cable doesn’t move/retract when I apply my Ebrake. The passenger side does. I’m not familiar with the system and being that it’s an automatic I’ve never used the Ebrake. Ive read in the past that the lines rust and if they do and u apply the brake they can freeze your caliper? My question is could it be that it’s just the drivers side cable that’s bad and I can just replace that and it will work? How hard is it to replace? I have a spare rear axle with that cable attached. If I pull on it and it extracts can I just swap it out? Thanks in advance. Again I’m not familiar with the whole set up

 

Not sure about "emergency" brake. These cars, like ALL cars, don't have any such thing. They have 2 braking "systems", which use the same parts butt apply them differently: the service brakes, which is what you use when you pull up to a stop light or something; and the parking brakes, which are utterly and totally useless for stopping the car when in motion, butt are designed solely to hold it still when stopped and parked. I'm guessing that's what you're REALLY asking about, since those are the ones that use cables?

If so, then yes, the cables can definitely rust up and freeze in place; and yes it would theoretically be possible for them to operate and then have so much friction that their spring tension can't release them although I've never seen that happen. About the only way it could was if the car sat up for several years with the parking brake applied right after driving it through salted snow. Yes you can replace the cables. There are 3: one to each wheel from an "equalizer" linkage in the drive shaft tunnel; and one from the handle to the equalizer. Any/all can be replaced individually or all at once which is what I'd do if one was bad. Replacing just one doesn't make much sense because all of them have been there for the exact same time under the exact same conditions and therefore are likely to be arbitrarily close to the exact same state, especially the ones to the wheels. No they're not particularly $$$ or hard to replace at all. They have sort of tabs that expand and hold the outer shell in a hole, and a ball kind of thing crimped on the end of the moving part of the cable to engage the other moving parts, that just hooks into them without any hardware or anything.

You don't say what year car you have, butt if it's 88 or older, with the terrible cast-iron caliper system, those rear brakes are completely and totally non-functional if you don't use the parking brake frequently. The parking brake is what adjusts them - the ONLY thing that does so. Without using it, the pads of course wear whenever they do work, and before long, they will have worn so far that the hydraulic system can't move them far enough to touch the rotors anymore. Every time you use the parking brake and release it, it unscrews the little piston inside the caliper a tiny bit (which is why you have to screw it back together when replacing the pads), to take up the slack that appears as they wear, so that the pads remain close to the rotor and able to actually do something. In fact, when doing a brake job, what you're supposed to do is first screw the pistons all the way in with the little cube tool or whatever else so that the fat new pads will go on over the rotor, then unscrew them partway back out using the same tool until they're far enough out that you can only just barely get them on over the rotor; then operate the parking brake a few hundred times to adjust them the rest of the way up to where they need to be, after you drive it with the new pads the first time. Then once the calipers are adjusted all the way up, adjust the equalizer for the parking brake so that the handle can only pull up about 6 to 8 clicks. You'll be amazed at how much better the brakes will work when they ... actually work. They might even work SO well that they'll be able to stop the rear wheels if the car is in gear and idling on the jack stands. At least I've heard people say that they can get them to do that.

Definitely replace at least the one cable that's frozen. Lube the others with penetrating oil to make sure they're as free as they can be, and then with WD-40 every once in awhile to keep them that way. Use the parking brake every single time you get out of the car, maybe even when you're stopped in traffic, and twice or even 3 times on Sundays just for good measure, so that your rear brakes will actually at least do what little those crappy brakes are capable of doing. At least they'll be a little better than just some pure dead weight hanging off of your axle like they are now, even though not really all that "good".

If your car is 89-up, with the aluminum calipers on the rear, this isn't necessary; those are FAR superior, and adjust by other means.

 

Thank you so much for the detailed message. Yes unfortunately it is an 86! I will try to tackle it today and see what I’m working with. I really appreciate the detailed information. I will post progress/set backs!