Hey Folks! I believe I threw my hand brake lever out of alignment on my '89 245 when I stooopidly cranked the everlovin' out of it today. It will not go back down. The button depresses and it goes down some, but it seems the toothed gear is not threading back up through the hand lever? I don't think the actual pads are frozen cause I CAN move the handle a solid inch. It's like I lifted it too high and threw it off its proper track. I can't get the lever cover off to really see what's what. Many thanks,

 

try lifting it up as hard as you can while pushing the button, I think you'll find you need to get it just a little higher, then the button will go all the way in, and then it will go down. if you take the button/ratchet too far, there's a dead zone up there where the button is off the track and it will move up/down a litle more til you run out of cable.

you probably need to adjust your parking brake cable, and you might even need new parking brakes (put this off til the next time you do the rear brake rotors, as they are inside anyways).

 

Thanks Pierce! Turns out that I managed to smash the side guide in,when I went up and over the top, which was keeping the lever from being able to straddle the gear on its way down. It was pinched in, so I had to lever it back out and then she slid right on down.
While I had everything apart, I tightened up the brake cable adjustment nuts so I WON'T be ABLE to lift the handle that high again!! I must have revealed another 1/4 " of thread easy. How much adjustment is on those aircraft nuts?
I appreciate your help!

 

you don't want the cables so tight that the parking brake shoes are dragging in the drums, or they could get really hot then seize up.

btw, I found our 240 parking brake worked a WHOLE lot better after we broke it in by going backwards about 15mph (in a large empty parking lot) and applying the parking brake to slow the car almost to a stop, repeat this a few times. this beds the drums or something so they work better, I believe I found this in the owners manual of our 1987 240 about a year after we'd bought it new.

 

Great advice. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks again Pierce!