Parking Brake Lever Boot and adjustment

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JaVeRo
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Parking Brake Lever Boot and adjustment

Post by JaVeRo »

I took the rear brakes apart to adjust the parking brake and decided it was time to replace the shoes. It was not down to metal but getting close. While cleaning the adjusting mechanism I found that the rubber boot on the back side of the backing plate was deteriorated beyond hope. The only way of buying it from GM is to buy the whole kit that includes the shoes and the adjusting mechanism, $116.

After a lot of searching on the Internet I "think" I have learned this.

The parking brake assembly was built by PBR, an Australian company, and was used on several of the GM products. The only way I could find to buy the boot from PBR was also in a kit. The 190mm brakes are the same size as the Impala and several other cars. I found a supplier that sells the boot for B body, F body and Y body cars (I have no idea what that means but one of them is the Impala and another is the Camaro). I ordered the two boots they have listed and the F body boot appears to be a perfect fit. I just slipped it over the mounting flange but didn't have the lever back in it yet. It will be tomorrow before I have time to put it all back together.

The F and Y body boot is the one that fit (OFH)
RMS Auto Parts

RMS was real helpful in sending me measurements and asked me to let them know if it worked. There is not much difference in the sizes but more of a different groove on the mounting surface so I bought both. Does anyone need a B body boot?

I will let you know how it goes.

James

One other thing, The instructions with the new shoes say to adjust to 189.6-189.8 mm That would be 0.2-0.4 mm less than the ID of the rotor. Thats only .016 inch. I like Brules measurement better.
2001 S10 Crew (wife's mail truck)
2002 S10 Crew, 2003 S10 Blazer
2006 K2500 5 speed
JaVeRo
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Post by JaVeRo »

I got the brakes back together and the boot fit perfectly.

James
2001 S10 Crew (wife's mail truck)
2002 S10 Crew, 2003 S10 Blazer
2006 K2500 5 speed
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HenryJ
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Post by HenryJ »

Good to know, thanks for the tip. Did you have a part number and price?

"Speed doesn't kill, suddenly becoming stationary does." - Richard Hammond
"Speed is just a matter of Money - How fast do YOU want to go?"-Mechanic from Mad Max-
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JaVeRo
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Post by JaVeRo »

They don't get real fancy with the part numbers.

OFH-Brake-Boot is the only part number on it. $15 for a pair. It does say "#8 from GM Kit 12454994".

I'm not sure but I think they have someone make them just for those vehicles. The only thing that didn't work was the two screws were the wrong size but that wasn't a problem.

On the adjustment I used a 12" caliper and set them to 189.5mm diameter across horizontally or 0.5 mm less than the inside diameter of the rotor. That's about 0.020 inches, a little less than you recommended in another thread but more than the instruction sheet with the shoes.

When I put the cables back on I found that the cables were pulling them out more. The instructions with the shoes recommend to back off the cable adjustment until you have a maximum 1mm play where the cable attaches to the lever. I backed off the cable adjustment until I found one of my cables was stuck from a kink so I replaced it. It seems to me the drivers side sheath (or whatever the outside part is called) is about 3 inches too long causing it to bow around to much.

With the shoes adjusted to to the dimensions above and the cable set to have just a hair of slack at each side, I had about 1/3 of the pedal left when it was pushed down solid. I think one mistake some people (me included) are making is setting the adjustment on the shoes while the cable is too tight. Like you said before, a lot of this information is not in the service manual.

James
2001 S10 Crew (wife's mail truck)
2002 S10 Crew, 2003 S10 Blazer
2006 K2500 5 speed
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HenryJ
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Post by HenryJ »

You are doing a fine job of outlining what needs to be done. I have no doubt that someone will find this thread very useful when it comes time to adjust the parking brake shoes and cable.

"Speed doesn't kill, suddenly becoming stationary does." - Richard Hammond
"Speed is just a matter of Money - How fast do YOU want to go?"-Mechanic from Mad Max-
If at first you don't succeed - Don't take up Skydiving!
- ThunderII KE7CSK