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Howdy,
It came the moment for me to replace the parking shoes and fix the parking brake (yeah, car annual survey next month). In general, I had a worn shoes that did not expand well so I barely had some "braking" efficiency. Today I took a closer look to the mechanism and it does not seem it is a self-adjusting one, but just a locking spring.
I've applied a new shoe, adjusted the mechanism so that the rear drum fits snug over the brake shoe and tried the brake. Drum still loose...
At a closer look I've found, that the link was loose, so half-way it was not pulling the lever at all. I've tightened the link (a bracket at a driver's side by the frame)
A next try with a tightened link it was OK, but only for a first time. With an every next try, the lever was slowly pulled out of the expanding mechanism...
The front surface of the lever has a dimple, same as the cap, that is being pushed:
I wonder... Maybe there should be some sort of a pin, that would go into the lever's dimple and lock it? Like I've marked below with a green color?
Or - in other words - what locks / prevents the lever from being pulled out?
Boy, this reminds me of my struggles with the parking brake, excuse me "Park Brake" as GM calls it.
I was pretty sure I saw that on mine there was a ratcheting mechanism with the lever at the back-plate that was pulled by the cable.
Here's the scans from my 1999 manual regarding the Park Brake, shoe and cable adjustment in case you might find them useful.
Did I mention we're doing same thing, but You're always few steps ahead of me...? LOL
We used to call it an "emergency brake" in Poland. I remember, when I was a newbie driver I had a caliper piston stuck once. I've boiled brake fluid and when I've attempted to stop, the pedal went into the floor. An emergency brake saved me that time. I don't want tempting the fate with my Blazer, so I better have it fixed. Besides, this summer I went for a trip to mountains and while parking Blazer on a steep slopes I had that bad feelings....
The mechanism I have is exactly as on the posted picture, no ratchet of any kind, no self-adjusting mechanisms (pity, all my previous cars had it). But I have a regular, stock rear axle (yet), without Eaton LSD like You, so maybe that makes the difference..?
Thanks for Your feedback, handy engineering data as always I have to suspend my job for several days, as the left cable is damaged and won't slide inside the cracked jacket. Just placed an ebay order for another one.
A good news is I've assembled a 2" wheel spacers and they're bulls eye match. Here, the law regulations do not permit any part of the car to be sticking out of the body contour, and it's a maximum You can get and still be on a safe side. Actually these regulations are a long story subject....
Did I mention we're doing same thing, but You're always few steps ahead of me...? LOL
We used to call it an "emergency brake" in Poland. I remember, when I was a newbie driver I had a caliper piston stuck once. I've boiled brake fluid and when I've attempted to stop, the pedal went into the floor. An emergency brake saved me that time. I don't want tempting the fate with my Blazer, so I better have it fixed. Besides, this summer I went for a trip to mountains and while parking Blazer on a steep slopes I had that bad feelings....
The mechanism I have is exactly as on the posted picture, no ratchet of any kind, no self-adjusting mechanisms (pity, all my previous cars had it). But I have a regular, stock rear axle (yet), without Eaton LSD like You, so maybe that makes the difference..?
Thanks for Your feedback, handy engineering data as always I have to suspend my job for several days, as the left cable is damaged and won't slide inside the cracked jacket. Just placed an ebay order for another one.
A good news is I've assembled a 2" wheel spacers and they're bulls eye match. Here, the law regulations do not permit any part of the car to be sticking out of the body contour, and it's a maximum You can get and still be on a safe side. Actually these regulations are a long story subject....
Yes, we used to call parking brakes "emergency brakes" too. Although I think we are dating ourselves by using that terminology. LOL Similarly, when I refer to regular Coke with sugar as "high-octane, leaded" my students look at me funny. LOL
I was concerned over my parking brake because of worries of sliding down the boat-launch ramp. The idea of my truck rolling down into the water was scary to me, hence my interest in understanding those brakes.
I haven't looked at my parking brakes for a while but I thought the spring/pawl on the adjuster could act like a self-adjuster with the adjuster rotating a bit when the brake was engaged.
Yes, we used to call parking brakes "emergency brakes" too. Although I think we are dating ourselves by using that terminology. LOL Similarly, when I refer to regular Coke with sugar as "high-octane, leaded" my students look at me funny. LOL
I was concerned over my parking brake because of worries of sliding down the boat-launch ramp. The idea of my truck rolling down into the water was scary to me, hence my interest in understanding those brakes.
I haven't looked at my parking brakes for a while but I thought the spring/pawl on the adjuster could act like a self-adjuster with the adjuster rotating a bit when the brake was engaged.
Testing my parking brake.
High octane, leaded, huh? Amongst the seamen we used to say "heavy fuel" for spirits
I got the feeling You might have a same brake assembly as I do... The spring/pawl set is to prevent pushrod from turning around, not for a self-adjustment. On the other hand the brake shoes do not worn off quickly, as the lining work static, so not a big deal.
Except - for me - while survey they may want to see if the parking brake works evenly on both sides.
P.S. I've omitted somehow a drifting purpose of an emergency brake. Awesome feature for a stick driven RWD in a wintertime Oh, wait, Blazers are RWD!
But this brake assembly we got in Blazers... I can hardly imagine drifting on it. LOL
08-20-2018, 07:51 AM
Parking brake assembly
I have to suspend my job for several days, as the left cable is damaged and won't slide inside the cracked jacket. Just placed an ebay order for another one.
