Edward J. Osterman

My 2001 ZO6 emergency brake only holds the car on the very last "click" when pulling the hand lever. The car has only 30,000 miles on it and the brake pads have little or no wear and have acted this way as long as I can remember. Yes I have pulled the wheels and rotors and readjusted the e-brake pads fairly tight to the drums with little improvement. I can't believe there isn't a devise or cable adjustment to reduce the cable pull required to "hold" the vechicle. The cables are joined above the differential (nearly impossible to reach) and inspite of examining the cable joining "box" and finding all clean and operative I'm pretty much out of ideas.Other than the pads mentioned above I see no other adjustments.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, Ed O.

65GGvert

I've never personally had to do it, but I've read that the cable auto adjusts itself if you pull it full on and off several times quickly. Doesn't cost anything to try.

DeeGee

From the book:

Cycle the park brake lever three times in order to obtain proper park brake cable tension.

0Josh@SpartanLSX

Cycling the brake lever is not going to give you a stiff e-brake that holds the car still. It tightens up the tension on the cable itself a little, but it doesn't actually turn the adjuster on the e-brake shoes

Ed, it takes quite a few turns to make a difference on e-brake function. You also need to check and make sure you're spinning the adjuster in the right direction. Pull the rotors off again, and spin each adjuster in a clock wise rotation until the rotor is tough to get on and off. This make take 5-8 full rotations, sometimes more.

I tighten C5 ebrakes on a daily basis @ the shop since they're notorious for this issue. Unless the cable is broken for some odd reason, moving out the adjusters will fix the issue.

dougbfresh

BS, that just takes slack out of the cable. You have to pull the rotors and adjust the star wheel adjusters to get the E-brake right. Remember DRUM brakes???

65GGvert

He's already done that. It didn't help. He specifically asked how to take the slack out of the cable. If it's BS, I wonder why they put it in the manual. If it holds on the last click as he said, he may just need the cable tighter. It doesn't hurt to try what GM recommends. Why would you think taking the slack out of the cable was BS if his brake tightens at the top? Couldn't you just say, I doubt that would help? I do remember drum brakes, and no matter how tight you adjust the shoes to the drum, if the cable is loose they won't tighten.

ALLEGRO

I thought that you could roll backwards, and cycle the handle to adjust the brake. I do this a couple times a year and always seem to have a good strong brake only using the middle area of the pull throw.

SUNNYD 95

Alright, lighten up Francis.

65GGvert

Nobody asked you.

pjensen

That worked.

At the last car inspection, the guy was saying that the emergency brake didn't work - and would not pass inspection. I got in and pulled it and it did stop the car from moving so it passed after all.

Nice to know about that cycling that brake 3 times.

Thanks.

lionelhutz

Rolling backwards is useless.

There are 2 adjustments.

#1 is supposed to be an automatic racheting mechanism in the handle to adjust the cable slack. The handle doesn't know if the car is moving when you pull and release it...

#2 is the star wheels at the brake shoes. You must pull the rotors to adjust these, there is no automatic mechanism on them.

Peter

rws.1

A fellow forum member has a web site with a DIY for both the parking brake cable service and adjusting the parking brakes via the star wheels

check out this link 3 & 4

http://www.ronjpics.com/Corvettestuff.htm

Birdman

Thank you for that info. I just went and did it on mine as well.

Good to get some valuable input once in a while, unlike the guy who told you to chill for no reason.

65GGvert

Thanks, glad it worked. SunnyD95 (and a couple of others) just troll around making smart a$$ or criticizing comments and never attempt to address the issue or help in any way.

Edward J. Osterman

Thanks for the thoughts. I've set the shoes to drum clearances properly and with only 30,000 miles on the car the problem seems in the cables.This car has had this issue since new and I'm determined to get the cable pull feature set to a mid pull. Helps with the valets too to say the least.
Ed

sts57c5

Mine was loose I just tried the three up and down and it worked not sure how long it will last wow thanks for the tip.

WannaC5Z

I just tried the 3 time pump and it does seem a bit tighter. However not a monumental change.

leadfoot4

I took my rotors off and adjusted the "star wheels", like the old drum brake adjusters. I got it so the e-brake handle has a little less travel than it originally had, but still toward the "full travel" end of the handle's range of motion. I'm a little afraid of getting them too snug. The shop manual shows a special measurement tool for doing this.

WannaC5Z

Just called the Cheby dealer and they want $107 to adjust the ebrake. Looks like I will be doing this myself.

racebum

it's easy, all you do is grab a pair of pliers and turn this star ratchet gizmo. you'll know you're going the right way when it raises up