Do It Yourself - Parking Brake Assembly

[Junkman2008]

Okay, here's the scenario.

You attempt to remove your rear rotors and the suckers are stuck. You bang on them with your big hammer, wiggling them as you try to pull them off but they just barely budge. Your patience is really being tested as it is not comfortable being bent over that long trying to do something that is not that complicated (removing the rear rotors). They are working themselves free but they just won't come off. Finally, you get good and worked up and start yanking at the rotor. You're all huffin' and a puffin' but those darn things finally yank free. You look at what is still attached to the car and this is what you see:



Yep, you did it wrong.

I did too which is why I know know how the parking brake assembly now works. I have to admit, "learning by screw up" is not a technique that I suggest anyone subscribe to!

Now there are 2 ways to do this. The "by the manual" way and the "you got to have the patience of a saint" method. The latter does not require any parts removal but requires you to fish the spring behind the wheel hub. I lasted all of 30 minutes before I crapped on that method and just took the entire assembly apart. It helped that I was doing a output shaft seal repair so most of my rear end was already disassembled. I believe Jason (JDMVette) did a write up on the shortcut technique but I can't seem to find it. I bet he'll chime in later on down this thread.

Now I'm going to do this a little different than the norm because this will actually serve multiple purposes. I'm going to assemble the parking brake from total breakdown. This way, you'll see what it takes to assemble it and this may assist in your repair if you have to reattach that spring. So, as my main man and former Marine Mills Lane would say, "Let's get it on!"



Here's the way it's put together.

First, the stabilizer with nothing but the upper control arm attached.



The next thing that you add is the dust plate, the parking brake actuator assembly, the parking cable bracket and bolts. The bolts that hold the actuator assembly onto the dust plate also hold the dust plate onto the stabilizer.





Next, install the parking brake shoes. You'll have to grab them with both hands and spread them apart to get them attached to the actuator. It also helps to have the actuator adjusted down to its smallest width.



Next, add that blasted spring...



Now you're ready to add the wheel hub. The wheel hub has part of the the wheel speed sensor for the traction control attached to it. Here a picture of it (special thanks to Randy aka Old Grouch for correctly identifying that part).



...and here's the wheel hub in place.



Here's the backside of the stabilizer showing the 3 bolts that hold the wheel hub in place. These can be removed using a Torx 55 socket bit. I had to go buy this bit to remove the hub. Thanks to Randy for saving me a trip into the garage to identify it!



Now here's the kicker! If you remove the center nut that holds the shaft in the stabilizer and then remove the 3 hub bolts, you should be able to pull the hub out of the stabilizer. FAT CHANCE AND GOOD LUCK!

That's why I'm not calling this a fix. This will give you some idea what's holding the parking brake together and maybe assist you in coming up with a method to resolve your issue.

There is one very important minor detail that I did learn that would have kept this whole situation from happening from the get go. Before removing your rotors, work the parking brake a bunch of times to free the parking brake shoes from the rotors. This is in the manual Had I bothered to read the manual before fooling with the rotors, I wouldn't have had to go through all this nonsense! Since you're reading this now, neither will you!

If you end up deciding to pull the shaft, you'll probably want to check out this thread.

Last of all, here are the instructions for adjusting your parking brake.

Have fun boys and girls! :buhbye:

The Junkman