[sabre364]

Originally Posted by kw1984

Well I am another one to add to the statistics... Maybe it's some sort of design fault that is going to become a common problem?

My Jeep was parked up for 2 weeks while I was on holiday.

When I returned, started her up, put in R to back off the drive and BANG. Gave it some gas and it wouldn't move. Put it in D, travelled about a foot and BANG, Jeep stops dead.

I did this a few times backwards and forwards and eventually backed the Jeep off the drive.

Now, I have no park brake. The lever pulls up about 2 feet and when I'm driving all off a sudden I get a load of rattling and then it dissapears.

God knows what damage is lurking inside the drums. I should really stop driving it.

It sounds the same as already said, that the shoes in the park brake have come off or been stuck on or something and have now disintegrated.

All happened on Sunday 7th March. A search came up with this thread.

Are these rear rotors/drums easy to get off so I can inspect the damage?

Thanks

Was your parking brake set that morning and just didn't disengage? or was it not set and self destructed regadless?

[kw1984]

The park brake was on for the two weeks.

I can only presume the shoes stuck to the drum over the 2 weeks and moving the jeep with them stuck has obviously ripped them apart some how.

I wont know untill I take the drums off and have a look inside. Hopefully I should get some time tomorrow.

[kw1984]

Well I tried to get the rotor/drums off with no luck so I am no further forward as to what has gone wrong.

Removed wheel, removed the 2 caliper bolts, put the caliper out of the way, removed the rubber O ring and started banging away.

Tried spraying some penetrating fluid around the studs and hub but these discs seem stuck on hard. Hit all on the fronts of the drum as well as from the back. The metal guard around the back of the discs means I can only hit it from behind in one place where the caliper goes. I find it hard to give it a good hit as there isn't much room to swing the hammer back.

Looks like I am going to end up needing stealer help on this one.

Thanks

Kieran

[LimitedHemi]

I had the exact same thing happen to me. It was during one of the recent blizzards we had up here in MD. I was one of the few people out in the snow (gotta love owning a jeep ;-) when I heard a loud bang and the back end started getting squirelly. I limped it to my garage and couldn't see any thing obviously wrong with the wheel/tire. In order to pull the rotor off to inspect the parking brake, all you have to do is remove the caliper and and a rubber O-ring on the hub in front of the rotor. when I pulled it off My brake assembly fell out in about 40 chunks of metal. Fortunately it wasn't driven far enough to damage the abs sensor or notches on the axle. Funny thing is when I called the dealer for the parts, they sell the baking plate fully assembled with all of the parking brake hardware and shoes already mounted. Seemed a little odd to me, but after reading this, sounds like a this a common problem and easiest to sell it this way to fix it quicker. To replace it I will only have to remove the axle and replace the O-ring in the axle, so shouldn't be too much work, but I haven't had time. This was just the driver's side, but after reading this, I think it's right time to pull the passenger side off and maybe order a replacement for it. As a side note, the rotors were severely scored on the inside, so it looks like it was frozen locked for a while. I'll update on how difficult it was to swap and if there were any issues associated with the cable itself, but it appears ok upon initial inspeaction.

[kw1984]

Thanks for that LimitedHemi

I was starting to feel a bit alone.

Thanks for confirming how you get the rotors off. I am going to try and get the rotor off the other side when I get a spare few hours. The one I tried to remove the other day was the left rear. As I don't have a spare set of rotors to hand I can't afford to use to much force to get them off incase I damage them. If I had new ones to hand I could hit the old ones with a nice big hammer. I will have a go at getting the right rotor off next and take it from there.

I shall let you know how I get on.

[kw1984]

Well got the rotors off today. I just wasn't hitting them hard enough on the fronts.

Inside wasn't as bad as I thought. Nothing has really disintigrated. The friction material as come off the shoes. This is on both left and right sides. The cable is still fine on both sides. Pulling the lever pushes the shoes (minus the friction material) outwards although it doesn't seem to move both shoes outwards equally. I don't know if it should when the drum isn't on.

I have the workshop manual for the Jeep so I need to have a read on what I need to do. I am only a home DIY mechanic. I change my own oil and will replace brake pad's etc but I'm not sure if this is to much to undertake.

YouTube - Jeep Grand Cherokee broken rear parking brake









Any help from anyone would be appriciated

Thanks

[kw1984]

Well got the shoes from my local Jeep dealer. They didn't have them in stock so had to wait over the weekend for them.

£102 = $152 for a set of 4 shoes!

The manual said the axel should be removed to replace the shoes. I started removing the axel then got scared that I wasn't doing it properly so I put it back together and managed to change the shoes without removing it.

Theres a rubber bung on the back plate where the shoes can be adjusted when the rotor and wheel are back on. I just turned the adjusting star wheel so that it was just binding then backed it off slightly. Did the same on the other side and now 2 or 3 clicks and the park brake works great.

[cmassey_2006]

Originally Posted by kw1984

The manual said the axel should be removed to replace the shoes. I started removing the axel then got scared that I wasn't doing it properly so I put it back together and managed to change the shoes without removing it.

Hey kw1984, how did you access the parking brake shoes without removing the axle shaft? I'd like to inspect the lining on mine. Thanks!

[Mainsail]

Originally Posted by who8myrice

So were driving on the highway, hit a pothole and..

Bill the city.