Re: No Parking Brake

[greglinstad <greglinstad@xxxx>]

Payne (#2975) and List,
As Payne mentioned (and others have previously) about the inability to get the parking brake to hold firmly, I discovered last week why mine never worked very well either. Missing pads is sometimes the problem, but mine were new. I decided to totally remove the support bracket that holds the hand brake assembly in place to see if I could find out why no matter how much adjustment I made to the brake units at the wheels the handle would feel OK, but not hold well. After removing the handle from the mounting bracket, it became quite obvious immediately what the problem was. The support bracket had cracked in two places and one spotweld had broken loose. This caused thefixed surface where the brake cables start from to be bent back each time the handle was pulled, and was now about 2 inches away from its' original position. This was not at all obvious until removal. I straightened the bracket, had it re-welded, and after some slotting of holes put it back on, did some adjusting at the wheels and I now have a totally functioning hand brake! Payne said "but I really had to yank it hard."and "I can pull the handle up as hard as I can..." and this is what I used to do, and what probablyworsened my problem so be careful. Pulling harder on the hand brake handleis not the correct way to overcome a poor holding parking brake and may domore harm than good. After removing my bracket I noticed that the way it was mounted to the floor and sidewall did put a lot of extra stress on the bracket as the body flexed, and could have been a contributing factor to thecracking. Remove the seat first (only 4 nuts from below) for easy access.
FYI, YMMV

Greg Linstad
Pacific Northwest DeLorean Club
VIN# 3507 120,000 + miles
Washington plate "RUSTLSS"
pndc.org