Mine had the same problem when I bought it a few years ago. I really learned to hate that 'ratcheting-bang' sound it would make as it popped back up... sometimes after I had walked away from the car a few steps.
I had to fix the brake immediately, because Texas wouldn't let me license the car until it passed a safety inspection (because I had imported it from Idaho).
It's been a while, and I don't have any pictures, but here's a few things I remember from the repair process:
- I was able to fix mine without ever disconnecting the cable to the rear brakes.
- I did, however, have to detach the assembly and drop it down into the footwell so I could get at the ratcheting mechanism.
- There are only two bolts you have to remove to do this; one is right above the release handle. The other one, at the front of the assembly, cannot be removed from inside the car.
- To get the front bolt out, turn the steering wheel all the way to the left (to make room), then remove enough of the left-front fender liner fasteners so that you can peel the liner back and get to the nut securing the assembly.
- Once I had mine where I could work on it, I saw that the ratchet mechanism had a small coil spring that pushed a pawl down onto the ratchet notches. The weird thing was, I couldn't see how the top of the spring was anchored to the frame. It was just floating around in the general area of the top of the frame, but wasn't 'pushing' against anything. There was, however, a small hole drilled in the frame, whee I would expect to see a protrusion to hold the top of the spring. So I suspect that there was originally something that fitted into that hole and secured the top of the spring. Who knows what had happened to it on my car.
- I fabricated my own by re-tapping the hole to fit a small hex-head bolt (I think it was 1/8 inch diameter?). I selected a bolt about one and a half inches long, and filed a smooth shoulder on the end that would fit about a quarter-inch inside the spring, allowing the spring to turn freely on the shoulder. I threaded the modified bolt in, stuck the spring on the end, and turned the hex bolt in and out until I got the right pressure on the ratchet pawl to make the brake work properly.
This probably sounds overly complicated, but it's pretty straightforward if you have the brake assembly in your hands. Of course, yours might be broken in a completely different way than mine... but the symptoms seem identical.
To this day I don't know what the original part would have looked like.
I hope at least parts of this help you out... good luck with your repair.
JohnBendik
Topic: Parking Brake Removal (Read 4401 times)