Hi,

Seems my car failed inspection, they said the emergency brake cable has way too much play and its not closing the rear brake to hold the vehicle. I have the Hummer h2 repair and maintenance manual but other than showing me the regular brakes, I'm not seeing a procedure to tighten the emergency brake cable, which I assume there has to be some kind of slack adjuster someplace on the assembly, somewhere.

I've looked at the pedal mech itself and I see how the cable wraps around the pulley, but again, I'm not sure if this where to be looking, or if I can set one of the teeth on the gear to catch more tightly, or if I need to do this on the rear left wheel somewhere.

Anyone ever have to tighten the cable up and can offer some assistance? I'm not really finding anything useful online or on youtube.

Thanks

 

The parking brake is on both rear wheels, not just the rear left.

It has an automatic adjusting function that is part of the pedal assembly and then the actual "drum in hat" brake pads have an adjustment as well. I'd suspect the pads are worn out. Replacing them means removing the rear wheels, rear disc brake calipers, then the rear rotors to get to the pads. The automatic adjuster at the pedal has nothing to adjust, just a way to lock it out for servicing the emergency brakes. After replacing the pads and putting the rear rotors, etc back on you fully press the parking brake pedal to the floor and release it 3 times to "adjust" it.

The attached is what is in the GM Dealership eSI system...

 

Thanks MixMan... HUGE help.... I was totally in the dark on this... so yeah, sounds like some new rear pads are definitely in order.

 

is the parking brake pedal reall ‘soft’? If so there is a procedure for resetting it. They had to do my ‘03 when they did my rear brakes. It’s in the service manual.

 

Hi Rusty... no, its got tension to it, the park brake just doesn't grab and if I put it in neutral, the hummer starts to roll very slowly. So the parking brake just isnt grabbing. I most likely need new pads. I know my fronts are due, so I will replace the fronts and get the backs done at the shop because I think that may be a bit more entailed than I've done.

Mixman sent me a link to the service manual on the parking brakes and I tried down the 3 down and release, it didn't help, so it just looks like its time for some new pads.

Thanks though.

 

You might find that there is still plenty of pad and might be able to just open the adjuster at the shoe(s) to spread them further out. The parking pads are really not that hard to replace if you are comfortable replacing regular disc pads. Just remove the rear like you would to replace the pads and the rotors. Once you pull the rotor off you will see the little pads for the parking brake. I believe our H2 uses a 2 piece shoe on each side but those are just as easy as the one piece style. I did the ones on my GMC truck several years ago and it really was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I think most places do not bother with that one tool in the GM docs - that is for checking the gap. Most places just go by feel and tighten the little adjuster until it grabs some than back it off just a tiny bit from there.

On my GMC what I found was that the pad had disintegrated so I did replace the pad itself.

Plenty of youtube videos on it. If you only have one vehicle I'd say to go ahead and get a set of pads from a local part store. Return them if you dont need them but have them handy if you do. Odds are if you do that, you will not need them. Odds are also that if you do not, then you will need them. lol

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+parking+brake