emergency brake acting up?

[aalloocckk]

okay, so when i was sold the car about a month & a half ago, the kid that sold it to me just said he "hadn't realized the emergency brake didn't work" and also had said that the car sometimes hesitates to accelerate. Little did i know that the two problems were connected. I took it to a buddy's mechanic & he said that the emergency brake sticks and the part would be $400+. Its only gotten worse in the past few days, and i'm getting more and more aggravated. It sounds to me that the emergency brake is stuck on. It stopped really aggressively when i come to a stop.

so, i searched a little bit and didnt really find anything that has lead me to any answers as to what i'm going through. Anyone got any advice or what i should do?


much appriciated; alex.

[85crownHPP]

$400??? that's steep even for the park pedal assembly... cables were well under 50 bucks each last I checked. Neither one is that hard to replace...

Usually when its stuck on, a cable is frozen up. Get under the car and find where the two rear cables join the front one, and yank on it real hard, pulling towards the front of the car. That might free it up... You've probably wrecked the shoes and wrecked/warped one or both drums too.

Does it feel like its getting held back like the brake is on? what do you mean it "stops real aggressive when slowing to a stop"? Does it feel like its grabbing/locking up? That's probably a different story.
Put it in neutral on a slight slope and see if it rolls - this will tell you if a wheel is dragging enough to be noticeable at least. How handy are you? Pull the drums off (if they aren't locked up) and see what you can see.

[aalloocckk]

When i'm attempting to roll to a stop, it'll feel like i slammed on the brake. right before i'm about to stop. But yes, it feels like its holding back. From a stop it feels like my foots on the brake. But in reverse its not affected at all? I dont know if that would be important or not.

i'm going to replace the drums & shoes tomorrow or the next day hopefully, and i'll look at the cables as well. Hopefully they're not locked up.

[85crownHPP]

Sounds like its seized up... park brakes don't hold as strong in reverse for some reason.
Id fix the issue before you replace the drums and shoes, or you will just wreck those too, if you can get the drums off.
There is a chance a return spring is broken and a shoe is just flopping around, dragging as it rolls.

[aalloocckk]

thats why i thought it was the parking brake, my friend seemed to be convinced otherwise.

(sigh) guh. well how would i go about fixing that exactly? should i see if i can find the piece at a yard or something? or can i just see if i can take off the drum & fix it? i'm not very mechanically inclined, so i apologize.

thank you.

[85crownHPP]

Get under the car and find where the two rear cables join the front one, and yank on it real hard, pulling towards the front of the car. That might free it up...

Strike that, reverse it. pulling towards the front will tighten them... but if you do that and they don't budge, they are probably frozen up. Right behind this 2 to 1 union, you can see where the cables go into their sleeves - try to shove them into the sleeve, that may help enough to get the drum off. Spraying some penetrating oil on that spot might help as/if it seeps in.

Once you get the drum off, look for anything broken or missing. Ill find a pic of a put together drum brake system to compare too.
On the rear shoe, you will see a lever attached to a pivot point high on the shoe. At the bottom of this lever is where the cable attaches. If this lever looks like its pulled out away from the shoe, its holding tension. If you can get a strong screw driver on it, you can try pushing the bottom of the lever back towards the shoe. If it looks pulled out and you can push it back with resistance, or not at all, you probably need a new park cable on that side.
Its also possible that the one front cable is seized up too.
Does the park pedal return well when it releases? If the front cable under the car feels tight with the brake released, the front cable may be bad (probably the rears as well) or somethings broke in the pedal assembly and not letting it return, especially if the pedal doesn't spring back up all the way when released.

I hope all this rambling is at least somewhat helpful, lol

Replacing park brake cables isnt too easy if you've never done them before, but if its just broken return springs in the drum or something, they aren't bad to change.

[85crownHPP]

here's a pic and a thread that may help

drum brakes

[aalloocckk]

the parking brake stays down maybe, one out of every 20 times you push it down, and it still doesnt feel like its engaged. when i push it down, it just springs right back up. and then i need to pull it further to hear the click, you know?

[aalloocckk]

and ill definitely take a look at that right for what i can, till i can lift it to look at the drums.

[aalloocckk]

I just went out there and tired to mess with the cable a little bit & it won't budge at all, so i'm gonna guess its frozen. i'm going to try to get it up and off sometime today, but i'm not sure if i'll have the time.

[aalloocckk]

i should really have just took off the wheel & checked out the braketo begin with. I took it off yesterday and it was just stuck on due to the shoes being completely worn down & the piston couldn't expand any further. I knew the brakes had to be replaced, but i guess i didn't realize the severity of the situation. I'm going to most likely be replacing them this weekend and hopefully the problem will be better and i'll be closer to getting it in optimum running condition.

thanks 85crownHPP for the advice & the pictures & what not, its greatly appreciated.

[85crownHPP]

The park brake dragging could have worn them out, but the shoes being worn out into the rivets can make them grabby too. I hope that's all it is!
While you have it apart check the action of the cables just to make sure.