I spent several hours tonight adjusting my emergency brake and still can't get it to hold right.

I don't know what the hell happened, because it worked at one point. At any rate:

I have an 84 car. So I have the threaded rod and adjuster in the driveshaft tunnel like all 82-89 cars, and the NON self adjusting ebrake handle.

I am using 89 rear parking brake cables. The 90-92 design did NOT fit using the style adjuster I have. The front cable is a replacement for the original 84 cable.

I have the rear PBR brakes. The aluminum ones used from 89-92. Please don't tell me anything about the recall on the 82-88 brakes. I've seen several people ask this question before and that is always what comes up. It doesn't apply to these brakes.

OK, now the problem.

I can't figure out how to get these adjusted right. As near as I can tell, I should adjust the threaded rod until the parking brake "levers" on the caliper just start to come off the stops, and then I should back it off just enough to get the levers to rest on the stops again. I think I did that right.

Where the problem comes in is that little allen socket screw that you're supposed to adjust for the free travel. Screwing that screw IN seems to actually make the ebrake apply LESS! or so I thought... I backed it way back out and got a nice, firm lever in the car. And of course, damn thing BARELY stops now, and barely holds on the hill. With the screw in any amount, the parking brake lever has almost NO resistance to it.

Anybody want to tell me how the hell I'm supposed to adjust this thing? The instructions in the Helms manual are next to useless, I don't have any idea what they mean by light load and I can't measure 0.6-0.7mm deflection in the lever arm even if I wanted to.

 

You pretty much covered all that I can think of

Have you reached the max amount that you can adjust the bracket in the tunnel?

I am sure that you have the pads seated properly. I wonder if the pads need to be beded? Or perhaps they just need to be "broken in" be for they are able to grap properly.

 

No, but adjusting the bracket in the tunnel more isn't going to get me anywhere. About 3/4 of the way up the ebrake handle in the car, the lever arm on the caliper contacts the stops. Any more adjustment is just going to stretch the cables.