parking brake drum adjustment - help!

[lars949]

So I recently took it upon myself to do whatever I can to get my E-brake working.

I have I4 gen 3 with 4 wheel disc brakes and the parking brake drum thing.

I first adjusted the nut on the lever inside since it was the easiest to do. I tightened it all the way up and still nothing at the wheels when I would lift the lever, even though I was feeling resistance.

So next I took off the wheel and the little boot/cover to adjust the sprocket as per the manual. Thing is the sprocket is so rusted/stuck that even when I torque it hard with a thick screwdriver, I get nothing. I'm afraid of I try any harder I'll snap the screwdriver. I sprayed some liquid wrench in the whole and let it sit for a while, but still doesn't want to budge.

After that I thought I might just take off the caliper and rotor and see what I can see. Thing is that the top caliper nut also won't come off. I've tried alot of liquid wrench and hammering my wratchet, but nothing will get it loose.

So this leaves me kind of stuck.

Does anybody have any tips about getting this damn caliper off or about adjusting the sprocket through the rotor? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[marc780]

If everything in there is so siezed up you cant adjust it, then the fix is to take everything apart, clean it, lube it at the lube points and replace parts as needed, anything else is is a half measure.
But first you need to get the big bolt off, of course - there are several tricks to try for this -
*are you sure you are turning the bolt the right way? It isnt reverse threaded, as you probably know -
*If you can fit an impact wrench in there - well you probably cant but - if you can, you can tighten-loosen-tighten until it eases out.
*Use the longest breaker bar on your wrench that you can fit in there. You may want to jack the car up for this, but if you do, block it good, support it good and dont use too much force at once. And dont crawl underneath to try this !
*Some heat from a propane torch, apply it for 30 seconds to a minute at the thread area.
*if you have to drill it out or bang off the head with an air chisel or something, so be it. The only problem is that even if you get the head off you may still not be able to get the caliper off so this is the verly last resort of course -

[lars949]

Thanks for the tip! I sort of forgot about using a torch. Nut came loose the second time I torched it.

I took off the rotor and found the inner drum all rusted as well as one of the shoes and such. I putzed with it a little bit but decided it wasn't worth my time to buy new shoes and whatever else I might need to get it to work.

[marc780]

Good for you, stuck fasteners are the bane of every mechanic. Just buy a new rotor, they are cheap nowadays, and if you had sufficient lining on the e brake pads you could just clean everything and reassemble.
From your post it sounds like you took it in, what ultimately did the fix wind up costing you?

[lars949]

Probably not going to take it in. I was mainly interested in getting it fixed so I could have some fun before the winter's up. But since I'd have to buy stuff, I'm just going to let it pass. Trying to save my pennies to buy a new car later this spring. I figure at 290k it's about time to replace it.

[marc780]

290k? bah why trade in, its just got broken in by now

[Eye8Pussies]

you sure that the e-brake is self-adjusting?

on the v6 rear discs, they aren't, and you can still adjust them yourself

though the most important thing is also just having sufficient amounts of pad left on the shoes

[marc780]

Pussies by jove i think you are right - corrected post leaving out the wrong parts -