Parking brake adjustment--another thread on it!

[wuykats]

So I just went through the problem of the parking brake lever ratcheting all the way to the stop and the brake not holding on even a slight incline. I chocked the front wheels, put the TC in neutrual and pulled the rear tires. Jeep has, what I consider to be a poor design that requires you to remove the brake caliper to access the adjusting slot in the backing plate. I also went ahead and removed the rotors for full access to the star wheel adjuster. The driver's side needs to be turned in a clockwise direction, looking down on it to expand the brake shoes. The passenger side needs to be turned counter-clockwise to expand the shoes. (Also looking at it from the top) After I had determined these directional needs, I reinstalled the rotors. Turning the rotors by hand I adjusted the shoes so that they were very hard to turn by hand, then backed them off just one "click", the rotors then turned fairly easily. After reinstalling the wheels and pulling the parking brake handle several times the the parking brake lever reached its travel limit and still did not engage the brakes sufficiently. So on to adjusting that by removing the 2 bolts holding the rear of the console down, lifting the rear of it up, propping it up with a 2X6 on edge and using a 10mm 1/4 inch drive deep socket to tighten the cable adjusting bolt. A 10 inch, or longer, socket extension will help a lot in this part of the job. Tightened it up probably 10 to 12 full turns and the handle then engages the parking brakes sufficiently to hold the vehicle on a hill. I know a lot has been written on how the parking brake cable stretches or breaks over time, we shall see. Also, a wide bladed brake spoon tool is recommended, the star wheels are not in the center of the slot opening on the backing plate. Main thing is, knowing which direction to turn the adjuster, CW for driver side, CCW for passenger. Hope this info is useful.

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