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Hi, I need to get my 01 Chrysler T&C minivan to pass safety inspection before a trip next week and my parking brake is not working. I’ve done a lot of work to try to fix this and, at this point I’m stumped and could use some experienced advice. Service brakes are working fine, so no issues there.
First off, this vehicle has rear disk brakes with a drum-in-hat arrangement for the parking brakes. About 8 months ago, my wife had been driving it a bit with the parking brake engaged (wondering why it was so sluggish). A while after that happened, I noticed that the parking brake pedal would not push in all the way and the brake wasn’t holding. When I finally got to taking the rear brakes apart last week to figure out the problem, I found that the left rear engagement mechanism was completely seized up, hence the brake pedal not going in all the way. I removed the rotor and found that the parking brake shoes were badly worn and everything in there was rusted up. Since the rotors and service brake pads were also marginal, I replaced everything– new rotor, new pads, new parking brake shoes, new parking brake hardware (except engagement mechanism which didn’t come in the hardware kit). I soaked the seized engagement mechanism in a rust-dissolver until it moved freely– I think it was in OK shape, so I added a little anti-seize and reinstalled it. It now moves fine and the pedal locks all the way down at the floor now. The cable under the van seems to be moving just fine.
To adjust the parking brake shoes, I did what I wound normally do for drum brakes– I adjusted them until the wheel wouldn’t turn easily, then backed them off slightly. Now, with the van in the air and parking brake engaged, I cannot turn the wheels by hand.
The problem is that the inspection standard is that the parking brakes should hold with the van in Drive and slight throttle. However, the brakes will not hold– not even in Neutral on a slight downward slope.
I’ve taken everything apart again and checked it against the factory service manual and it all looks right– still has the problem. This thing’s kicking my rear right now. I don’t know what else to do and hope someone here can help.
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Do you have any way of adjusting your parking brake equalizer or tension on your parking brake cable? It may need adjustment.
I think it’s your new parts, they haven’t had the chance to ‘rust up’ yet. You might take some sand paper or some sort of air tool to the inside of the drum to rough up the surface, the more the better. You might also run some sand paper over the friction surface to scuff that up too. I think once you do that it will hold better. I think once they see you renewed everything they’ll understand and perhaps give you a break because I don’t think you can do anything else beyond what you’ve already done.
Thank you both for your suggestions. The pedal mechanism adjusts “automatically” so there’s no manual adjustment. I did look it over to verify that it is working properly and is pulling the levers on the backing plates to the fullest extent possible. As it turns out, Eric’s suggestion worked! I took the rotor/drums off and roughed up the drum internal surface with 60 grit and that made it hold well enough to pass! Still not as well as I would like, but I got my sticker. Thanks for your help!
Thank you guys! I had a pretty large stack of repairs on my old “fleet” this year to get past inspection– ball joints, window regulators, blower, brakes on two vehicles. This was kind of a “last straw” when I had it all together right and it still wouldn’t work. I appreciate your willingness to give me some ideas when I was out of them.
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