Greetings all,
Firstly! I wasn't sure where to post this, I have a 99 Blazer and neither section seemed to include that year-range. If I'm posting in the wrong section my apologies.
Secondly! I actually found this forum via goog'n which brought me to this : https://blazerforum.com/forum/2nd-ge...nt-work-54030/
The op has the same issue I have, I think?. But I'm a bit confused by the answer so I'm hoping someone can confirm if this is my issue as well.

The Issue:
My emergency brake lever will go down and stay down when I press it in, has a lot of resistance when you press it down, BUT does not stop the car from moving.

I unfortunately failed inspection due to this (I never use it, wasn't aware) and need to address the issue asap. Asked the guys when it was inspected they said could be the cable. But from what I gather if the cable were messed up it wouldn't have resistance when I push it down or behave properly (release normally) otherwise?.

Any ideas/put on what it could be? Thank you very much!

 

Welcome to the forum. A corroded cable will not pull smoothly in one or either direction. Spraying some penetrating oil on the ends of the cables and working them back and forth usually loosens them back up. If not, new ones are required. Once the cables are working the brakes need to be adjusted until the wheels lock after 5 to 9 clicks of the pedal.

 

I struggled with my "park brake" as the GM manual calls it until I figured out my problem.

This was important to me as I wanted to prevent my truck from rolling into the water when launching my sailboat at the launch ramp!

Even the dealer who I, in a fit of mis-place faith, hired to do the park-brake service did not know what they were doing, i.e. when I got it back the brake was even worse at holding my truck in place. (It was the last time I used them for anything with almost all maintenance and repairs done by myself now.)

To fix it I spent an afternoon messing with the park brake to figure out how it works. The Chilton manual nor the GM manual (at least initially) were not all that helpful. It was only later that I found what I needed in GM manual.

Unlike all other parking brake mechanisms I had seen previously, this brake has its own self-adjuster. Tightening the cable does very little with regard to taking up this adjustment. What happens is that the self-adjuster seizes or if the brake is not used, the self adjusters do not adjust.

I'm attaching excerpts from my 1999 GM S/T Truck manual on the Park Brake. The shoe adjustment is on the third page and the cable adjustment is on the last page.

BTW, in the Chilton's manual I have, their picture of the parking brake shoes is upside-down. LOL

Hope this helps,

Christine

 

Thank you for the response. Just to be sure I interpreted properly, you're saying that since I never use the emergency brake, the self adjuster has potentially seized. Reading that pdf states I'd have to adjust the adjuster nut (page3) to resolve it. Is this a proper understanding? my apologies at misinterpretation.

Thank you for the response. I'll take a look and see if the cable is pulling when engaged. The guy was basically guessing when he said it could be a cable, and said he wasn't sure.

 

Yes. If the parking brake is not used, my understanding of the self-adjuster mechanism is that it will not self-adjust for any wear on the shoes. Also, if it is not used, it is more likely to get seized, especially if you drive where salt is used on the roads.


Yes, the cable is designed to pull on the park brake mechanism enough to engage the park brake. However, what happened in my case after I got my truck back from the dealer, I learned that they never did the initial adjustment on the shoes so that amount of travel needed for the shoes to engage the drum on the inside of the rotor was quite a bit more than the cable would travel when the park brake pedal was depressed.

Hopefully, the fix will be to take off the wheels and rear rotors so that you can get the self-adjuster mechanism working again. It is much like the self-adjusters in drum brakes. If you have ever worked on those, it will look familiar to you.

When I first figured it out, I would manually adjust the wheel on the self-adjuster, put the rotor back on, pull on the cable to get the shoes to expand and then rotate the rotor, secured with a couple lug nuts to see if I could hear a slight rubbing sound. I then would back off the adjuster wheel just a tad.

Let us know how you get on or if need any other advice.

 

Very much appreciate those more detailed instructions. I'm verrrry new to working on vehicles (oil changes and window motors aside), wanted to be sure I was understanding correctly. You say "wheels" then mention separately the rear rotors. Will I need to adjust the the self-adjuster on all wheels or just the rear two, to be sure I'm understanding properly.

Thank you again!

 

No worries.

Here's some more info: The front brakes are disc brakes with basic rotors but the rear brakes are rotors that also have a cavity on the side that faces inward in which the park-brake shoes reside. When the shoes are made to expand outward, the surface of the shoes push radially outward up against in the inside of the cavity. This cavity is the equivalent of a drum on a set of drum brakes.

In short, the self adjusters are only on the rear wheels, for the park brake mechanism. Read through the instructions I sent. You also would likely do well to get a copy of the Chilton's or Haynes manuals as an addition reference.

Try your best to understand how the mechanisms are suppose to work. This will make following and interpreting the directions easier. You might even find some YouTube videos to help with the basics.

Good Luck.

 

I've taken the wheel off and verified the cable is still pulling back fine, will go forth w/ the adjuster now. Thank you for the instructs, will post back after (hopefully) it's fixed!
Only issue I see is to remove the two bolts for the caliper the top one has a hose in the way for a socket wrench, guess would need regular wrench to get that top one off, bottom one is fully accessible.