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GT parking brake ok forward, nothing in reverse!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:10 pm
by KJones
Hey folks, this seems a bit odd to me - if I leave the parking brake on I can back out of the driveway no prob, and then come to an immediate stop when I try to go forward. Pulling the brake handle as far as possible doesn't help, still no brake backwards but just fine forwards.

What should I check for here?

KJ
2004 Vibe GT, newbie - owned for 1 month

Re: GT parking brake ok forward, nothing in reverse!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:43 pm
by tpollauf
Hmmmmmm. Strange indeed. It sounds like your shoe/pad/drum arrangement (not sure on the terminology here) is acting like it is "directional" and not even. I've had slightly similar situations where one way will "grab" the drum tighter that the other way.I'd say look over your cable and make an adjustment to where you can put more tension on the cable to where it may actually grab the drum tighter. Just make sure that when you fully release the brake that the wheels free spin. Other than that I don't know what to tell you :?

Re: GT parking brake ok forward, nothing in reverse!

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 8:47 am
by KJones
Bump! After replacing a rear wheel hub due to a loose wheel almost coming off (Thank's Paul's Auto Clinic in Pontiac, you dork) the parking brake did work for a while, but now is back to it's old trick - holds fine against forward movement (engine even will stall), but just lean on the hood and she starts to roll backwards. Don't really wanna pull the hubs unless someone else has fixed this that way (one set of shoes stuck maybe?).

Anybody?

KJ

Re: GT parking brake ok forward, nothing in reverse!

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:54 am
by joatmon
The GT has front and rear disk brakes, but the rear rotors have a drum to accommodate a drum style parking brake. Or maybe it's a drum with a disk to accommodate disk brakes. Guess its a matter of perspective. But the rears on a GT are both hydraulic disk and mechanical parking drum.

Seems like a a general complaint (lots of cars, trucks, etc) that parking brakes don't work as well in reverse as they do in forward.

There is a a typical drum brake style adjuster, maybe it needs to be adjusted