Superformance rear brake adjustment

[madmaxx]

If you own a newer car which has the emergency brake incorporated into the rear caliper adjustment is necessary. In theory the adjustment is very simple you apply the brake and then you pull the parking brake handle as far is it will go. In theory this will ratchet the rear caliper piston to accomodate for any wear.

In reality what must be done is to ensure the threaded rod on your parking brake handle is adjusted about halfway on the the threaded rod with the nuts on either side of the parking brake mechanism tight.

#2) Have someone apply the regular brake then you manually actuate the parking brake mechism on the brakes calipers. This ensures they ratchet out. Once this is complete adjust the cables so that both parking brake levers on the caliper move at the same time.

The problems I found were:

1) rear brake cables not adjusted evenly so one caliper never adjusted out to account for wear.
2) parking brake threaded rod nuts were loose, handle would move 4 inches before any resistance felt. This is because the handle latch was just moving on the threaded rod until it ran into the nut and then would pull on the cables.


I gained about 35% more brake pedal.

You would think the owners manual would detail this but it does not.

I can lock up my rear wheels with my emergecy brake now, and once again I can lock up my rear tires with the brake pedal. If you cannot do this with yours you need to adjust your caliper pistons out as I describe then adjust the cables and handles.

[Got the Bug]

Madmaxx - What's your chassis number? They changed the style of the parking break several times...caliper, drive shaft, then I believe back to the caliper on the latest cars.

[madmaxx]

Mine is 2816? I'll have to look when I get home. If you have one intergrated into the caliper they all function the same way, drive shaft is completly different. I put ebrake on and put it in gear, and the car would barely budge. I guess state inspection is good for something, LOL!!

[madmaxx]

I have a little more time. The problem with the spf design is it utilizes three cables. One cable from the ebrake hadle, and then one cable to each brake caliper back to the ebrake handle bracket for lack of a better term. 99% of designs use one cable which goes from one brake caliper to the other brake caliper via the ebrake bracket. This ensure you are always pulling evenly between the two calipers. It is possilbe and very very likely most spf are pulling harder on one caliper than the other. Once the pads contact the rotor on one side you cannot pull any harder and if the other cable is not adjusted properly it will not pull on the caliper brakcet to ratchet it out and therefore it never adjusts and before long as the pad wears you get less braking. Obviously if the ebrake handle cable bracket is loose all bets are off.

I have a 4 post lift so i could easily work under mine why the wife held the brake pedal down. I loosened the cable up to each caliper and manually pushed the caliper bracket back and forth. Intially it would rotate about 2.5 inches, by the time it ratched it out it rotated .5". The driver side only rotated .5" the whole time because the cable always pulled tight on it so it kept in in adjustment.

[FOMOCONUT]

Hey Cool, Thanks for the info I will try it. SPF #2773 Jerry