Hello all,

I am having my left rear wheel heat up and drag, presumably the parking brake. I have read Bodsby brake bible about the adjustment. I have read about others removing the system all together. Does that involve just removing the shoes? What else is required? In the mean time until I can get in there an replace the shoes or remove it, can I just back the adjuster off all the way on that wheel so the shoes aren't in contact with the drum at all and drive that way?

Thanks,

Aaron

 

Adjust it up just like drum brakes. I redid shoes, left the brake off, pulled rotors, replace, adjust to rotor drums just like drum brakes , reassembled and been working good for 5000 miles now.

 

Yeah I understand the adjustment procedure. What I'm wondering is if I can quickly pull the wheel and just back the shoes right off and drive it like that, or if that will trigger an error.

 

I definitely would not back the pads off all the way unless you can guarantee that nobody will pull the brake lever. If you back them off all the way and the brake lever is pulled, the actuator rod may reach the end of its travel and jam in that position. This just happened to me fairly recently.

 

Thanks for that info!
So those who remove the EPB system altogether, what are they removing? Obviously its not just the pads? Pads and actuator?
I never use the system and from what I read it seems to be quite a bugger to maintain. I know that mine had the actuator replaced a year ago, before I bought it. It's a system I could do without.

 

I just did this for a customer despite my advice not to do it.

His actuator was malfunctioning and even when it was not engaged it had pulled the driver side cable and even after backing the pads off all the way it was dragging.

He was adamant that he didn't want the parking brake so I took off the drum/disk removed all the components but even then the cable seemed like it my rub on something as it was not anchored, so I cut it off just after the frame hook.

no faults whatsoever.

 

Thanks! That is the info I was looking for. I'll likely be doing this myself. Out of curiosity, why were you suggesting he not do it?

 

Obviously you guys don't live in areas that require yearly or bi-annual safety inspections. You could never get away with not having an emergency brake where I'm from.

 

I like to have my vehicle with all of the systems in working order. He and I both live in flat areas but on the off chance that he wants to park on Lombard street in SF, he would want a parking brake.

He lives in Nevada and I live in CA. In CA all you need to do is pass smog and you are on the road. If the car is salvaged and you want to bring it back to working order/register it, then you have to have a safety inspection.

 

I would like to have it in working order as well, but I'm not sure I can make that happen right now. Stupidly busy. I do not want to permanently disable it, but I need to make it safely drivable until university exams are over.

What about removing the brake shoes and just disabling the actuator? By say unplugging the harness or pulling a fuse? Is that a possibility? I may look at the wiring diagram and see if there is a fuse that only covers the actuator. I do not want to cut cables if I dont need to. I also do not want to drive it with dragging brakes and have the shoes delaminate and jam inside there as I have read happens.