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Emergency Brake adjustment

866 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Trail14Crawl 
#1 ·
Recently I noticed that the E brake isnt gripping unless I pull that thing way way way up.. My wife cant even pull the E brake up as high as it needs to go in order to grip.. So it's my tranny thats taking the brunt of parking on a hill with a boat attached to it.... It sounds AWFUL as I try to put it in drive...
Anyways, I took it in to the dealership for the brake fluid flush and I asked them about adjusting the E break.... They tell me " that's a Jeep, there is no way to adjust the brake other than by pulling the e brake passed the engaging point and doing this a few times and it will auto-adjust... Sounds like a load to me so I google it..... I find people self adjusting their JK's e-brake.... WTF?!?!?! Does a 2012 JK actually have a self adjusting lever or do i need to pull the brakes apart and do this adjustment on my own?
 
#2 ·
Self adjusting, when everything works properly...there is a ratchet system at the base of the HB hand lever

there is a way to "cheat" the ratchet system into thinking it needs to be tighter..... that is=> by holding the rear HB cables from fully returning after release. then cycling the hand lever so it ratchets and picks up slack
However: as I said before, it should perfectly auto-adjust if everything is working properly. open those rear brakes and look that the HB mechanism is working properly. there is no actual hb adjustment at the rear but there is a shoe spreader adjuster to compensate for worn shoes/oversize "hat" (drum in disc).... don't skip steps as "cheating" a "broken" or handicapped HB system can cause them to drag and overheat your rear rotors. Usually the problem is that one of the rears hb pivot levers is seizing up- your actually twisting those rear pivot levers instead of them pivoting.
by your added effort- that seems to be the issue here too.

BTW:eek:n a side note ,I have found that aftermarket cables aren't always the exact proper length and can cause havoc with adjuster also.
 
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