as one of my last parts of restoration I needed to fix the back brakes. The problems there were one dragging caliper, rusty rotors, and the e brake was loose.
This has been a 2 week saga for me now, should have been an easy job, but no.

So anyways, I tighted up the adjuster in the wheel as much as I could go without rubbing inside the rotors. I tightened up the adjuster in the console.
I pull up the ebrake and it feels good, doesn't go up far like it used to.
Works good going forwards, but won't catch at all backwards.



horror story below.
First off, tried to get the brake lines off with a regular wrench. Stripped em good. Moved up to vise grips, nope. Religated the idea of replacing the outer most line and went to sears and bought the flared 11mm wrench to undo the inner part of the lines. Nope stripped again. Basically I ended up replacing all 4 brake lines in the back after the Y. I thought for sure I could undo one from the Y that connects to the rubber hose on the axle, I have bad luck I guess. Not really fun, but not really that hard. Had to buy a bender too for $30. Brake lines cost me $150 from the stealer. The nicer set of flared wrenches cost me $35.

 

Sorry to hear about your luck.I have been there and done that.

If you adjust the rear shoes a little more you should be fine.
I little bit of drag on the rotors are fine.

 

so you say, adjust the star out further to the drag point?
One thing that came to mind, I sprayed the hell out of the pad surfaces of the rotors, but not the inside. Do you think it would make a difference in this case?

 

You could also clean the inside of the rotor where the E-brake shoes rub on.
You could also sand the rear shoes for the E-brake as well to make sure they arent glazed.
Then try it and see what happens if still no good tighten it up a little more.

 

Thanks!
Seems good now, I tigtened up the star on the wheels until they locked up good and tight, then loosened up the adjuster on the handle till the wheels spun free. All good now.

 

Im glad it is working now.

 

My parking brake was shot and I need it working to pass a safety this week, I figured out that both cables were siezed so I removed them and worked them free, hey I made almost 3 dollars in coins that was under the carpet in the rear!! haha

so I re assembled the brakes and to my suprise the E-brake linkage was free and not siezed up at all, suprising to me on a 12 yaer old automatic tranny car. So reassembalt went well and I have the adjustment on the ebrake handle to the tightest position and when i pull up the handle the brakegrabs but not tight enough.

The little star adjustment thingy i left where it was in the first place and didn't change the position on them. My cables are free and the brake is partially working, will hold car in drive but will move when i press on the gas. Is it possible that all i need to do is adjust that little star thingy and open it up a little, it is it more likely that the canles amy be streached out too much?
thanks
-Mike

Ps this was the first time I have had the rear wheels off anf i noticed that the ABS rotors are sitting there and are easy to clean, i thought that was awesome because the reas abs sensors and rotors are inside the control arm on the raer of my mitsubishi and are impossible to clean up ubless ya pull the stub axle!! haha +1 for volvo design!! I'm starting to like this brick!

 

Yes try adjusting the rear shoes by turning the Star.

 

i tightened the star thingy as much as i could through the hole on the rotor, I tightened it once and the park brake grabbed OK but did not grab in reverse. i drove around a while and then i removed the wheels again and tightened them some more. Then the brake worked very good once pulled tight! as i spun the rotors and there was a little friction. Now the drums inside the rotors are not in the best shape especiall ywhere the brake has not been used. I went for a drive again and when i returned i touched the rotors/drums and they were pretty warm/hot. I think if i loosen them some the ebrake will not work, I'm hoping they will wear in to the drums and eventually therer will be no friction in there.

Can they be too tight?

thanks
Mike

 

If you tighten them to much the car will drag when you try to drive. If it is close don't worry about it.
The rust needs to be cleaned off anyways. Also it will wear the shoes down slightly. But no biggie.

 

Yeah you're right it was a bit tight yerterday and the wheels wouldn't spin freely when suspended, but today on a ramp i spun them and there was no friction at all!!