Conquer the Stuck Parking Brake, Parking Brake Options

[JRR]

A previous topic touched on this, but I just fixed mine and it was a big hassle. Hope I can make it easier for others.

My 1997 GT parking brake on left rear tire was locked tight. A years inactivity caused it, although, interestingly, there was no visible rust. I tried everything before pulling the tire. Every step was a pain. It the end it turned out to be solved simply: adjust the brake through an access hole in the rotor.

Before that:
Check the cables and handle first. Jiggle the cable where it enters the wheel hub. If unsuccessfull, Try and break loose by a powered rock with a healthy dose of throttle. If none of that works, pull the tire. Remove the disc brake. Remove the calipers from the mounting plate (muscle needed).

The parking brake brake works by pushing pads inside a standard drum cast into the rotor itself. Thus, although the regular braking is disc, the parking brake is a drum mechanism.

The rotor has three holes, one larger and closed with a rubber plug. Two smaller which are open and threaded . Pull the plug, shine a flashlight in the hole. You should a see a star wheel (may have to hunt for it in the dark inside), use a flat head screwdriver to spin the top towards you. This will allow the springs inside to pull back the pads from drum, and the rotor to turn. Problem solved. Unless...

The access hole is not aligned over the star wheel. Then, of course, you cannot get to the star wheel through the rotor. To get to it, you need to loosen and spin the rotor to align--which you couldn't do in the first place. Catch 22. Chicken-egg.

Solution: try to remove the rotor. Do this by screwing bolts into the other two holes in the rotor. Use the bolts from the disc calipers: they fit, but be careful not to strip them. Trying to finds ones that fit from Lowe's is pretty difficult. These bolts push the rotor away from the hub. Do so until you can wiggle the rotor some. Then use the tire iron leveraged against the regular tire bolts to muscle enough spin to align access hole over star wheel. Then spin the starwheel as already mentioned and disengage the drum pads. Test and adjust with the pull handle in the console.

I am not even a casual mechanic, but it was too expensive to take it to a professional, so I gave it a shot. It was a long process of trial and error, but in the end, I kicked its ass.

Hope this saves you some time