Hey, whaaatup.
So, my battery died the other day, and i had to push my car about 30 across a parking lot so that a charger would reach. Anyways, i pushed it over, and when i was done, i was thinking "Wow, that was kind of tough!".

I get in the car, and the parking brake is on! I was like, No way!

Got back out, sure 'nuff, the thing pushes around fine!

What can i do to restore my parking brake? The rear brakes are fine, however sometimes my mastercylinder shows lack of fluid, and I have to top it off. Do i have a leaking line somewhere?

Thanks <(''<)

 

if there's a lack of fluid, and you're not taking any out.. you have a leak!

Is it in the front or rear portion of the MC?

I believe the front portion is the rear brakes, and the rear portion is for the front brakes.

Which one appears low?

Not sure if a leak would stop the ebrake from working or not.. someone else can chime in on that. That's probably your problem, though, or you just need to adjust the ebrake

 

Ill take a look-see on the morrow.

 

One of your brake cylinders is leaking in the rear.

Also rear brakes do not self adjust well. They need a manual adjust every 6month to keep the Ebrake working well.

 

No, the ebrake is purely a mechanical system.

 

Are your rears drum or disc?

 

Exactly, fluid level doesn't affect it. One of the reasons its mechanical is in case your hydraulic brakes fail for some reason, you still have at least some, though not much, braking power.

My e-brake doesn't work but that's because I don't have the cables hooked up anymore. Haven't decided how I'm going to get these parking brake levers to match up to my cable. Oh that, and I removed the parking brake drums because I thought they were the cause of a noise I had..turns out I need a new caliper (which should be here tomorrow! )

 

It's a mechanical system but beleive me, if one of your rear brake cylinders is leaking (drum brakes) the e-brake isn't gonna do much for you. The brake fluid gets on the brake shoes/drum and reduces the friction coefficient to, oh, about the same as wet ice sliding across teflon.

If it's rear discs then the self-adjusters on most (all?) years of the 3rd gen were problematic. Not that it was entirely the adjuster's fault- often the e-brake cables got sticky and wouldn't return fully, allowing the calipers to self-adjust.

 

People like to forget that brakes have to be regularly cleaned, lubed and serviced just like every other system on the car.

 

Ill see about getting this thing up and 86ing the brakes.
Thanks