i know these have issues, how do i get it to work

 

On my 00 when we got it, the PB never worked...
I went ahead and put new rotors, pads, and PB shoes on it when they started sqealing.
I got aggrivated at it because it still didnt work..
But i kept using it, Now it works like a charm,
Ive been told they are "Self Adjusting" dont know how,, but mine works good now..

It wouldnt hurt to pull the rotors off the rear and just check them...

 

well then i bought it some jack *** mechanic adjusted it to where the pads were touching to get it to work and i was going to buy some new brakes soon and thought would buy some new shoes to and thought that might work

 

I just replaced them on one of our work trucks last week. It was a 2002 RCSB 1500 Silverado. The truck only had 55,000mi on it. The parking brake didn't work at all (pedal went straight to the floor with no grab) and wouldn't pass inspection.
Anyways, I pulled it apart and found that the driver side parking brake shoes were not worn too much, but the passenger side shoe was down to metal at one part of the parking brake shoe. I really couldn't understand this kind of wear until I started to examine the design. I found that there is nothing that actually holds the parking brake shoes in one place. The only thing that keeps in from moving in a lateral direction is the drum that it applies to.
Yes there is a tab that is held by a small 8mm headed screw, but this only keeps that portion of the shoe from coming out in a horizontal direction and coming off the manual wheel cylinders that have a groove that the opened end of the parking brake shoe slides onto.
If the shoes were actually pinned down, they would not walk up and down on their own. The passenger side seems to be the one that does this the most. I guessing it's because the manual wheel cylinder is on the bottom vs the drivers side one being at the top.
Anyways, before re-installation, clean the parking brake assembly and rotor/ drum with brake clean.
I purchased a new set of parking brake shoes from O'Reilleys. It came with two new parking brake shoes & two different types of parking brake tabs. The original type ones and the and some wider ones. I decided to use the wider ones due to more apply pressure. I didn't use the new screws because they are actually of a different thread type. I just used the old ones again.
I adjusted the shoes out (flat head screw driver) until they began to touch the drum and cause drag.(Note: Do one side at a time. Do not put or leave the rotor on the side your not working on. This gives you the best feel. I also snugged down the rotor against the hub with two lug nuts flipped backwards, hand tightened when checking for proper adjustment.) I then backed the adjuster off just a little until it didn't touch. Repeat this procedure for the other side with the rotor off the side already repaired and adjusted.
After the new parking brake shoes, the proper adjustment, and everything torqued back together, the paking brake pedal began to grab a little more than a 1/4 way down. It grabbed ok at 1/2 way, but held the vehicle nicely at 3/4 pedal. It should hold with vehicle in drive with slight throttle.
Hope this helps some of you.
Tools needed:
- 7/8 or 22mm impact socket and air/ electric impact gun
- 1/2 in drive ratchet (long handle type will work best)
- 18mm, 1/2 in drive short socket (6-point prefered, 12-point will do)
- 1/4 drive ratchet
- 8mm, 1/4 drive short socket (an 8mm wrench will work as well)
- Medium size flat head screwdriver
- medium grade loc-tite (Apply to caliper bracket bolts before re-assembly)
Those of you that think they need to replace the rotors/ drums for sake of making the parking brake work, it is not needed. Unless you just want to just for a piece of mind. There is enough adjustment in the adjusters for the new shoes to apply just fine.
Hope this helps some with the parking brake issues.

Jim

 

Great info! I am having problems with mine right now, this will help a ton, thanks!

 

my driverside e-brake works like a charm....pasenger side doesnt do anything...weird.

 

Neither of mine work now. I went to get inspected and it wouldn't pass. Sure enough all the way to the floor with no grab, and I don't use mine very often.

Something else to do.

 

You know there is an adjustment in the cable itself. I adjusted mine as stated above and then tightened the cable up. Also my truck had about 42k on it and the shoes were wasted, one of the pads came unglued. The real problem is when you put a boat in the water or take it out. The water has no where to go...also the brake dust, etc. It's a cool idea, I think they should have vented the rear somehow to let that garbage out.

Dave

 

Did you know you can also adjust them the same way as old-school drum brakes.....all you do is back up at about 10mph and push down on the e-brake pedal while holding the release handle so that the e-brake isn't able to lock in place, when you come to a halt and release the pedal the brakes will stay adjusted properly. A GM tech told me this and I thought he was full of **** until I tried it...it worked perfectly !!

 

i"ll try that, s you hold the realese and push the brake with your foot at the same time?



as far as the other true way to fix them, mine seem to have alot of pad left but the adjustment on them sucks!!