Parking Brake Adjustment

[The Viper]

My 95 Montero didnt pass inspection because the parking brake wasnt holding at all, how do you adjust it?

I checked out the FSM, but im still a little unsure on the process, it mentions adjusting the "lever stroke"?

Can anyone give a little more explanation on how to remedy this problem

 

[JamesW]

How far up does your handbrake pull? What you need to do is:

Chock the front wheels with blocks
Jack up the whole rear axle at once and put it on stands,with the handbrake down
Crawl under and look at the back of the brake plate,there is a little rubber cover that you will be able to pick off pretty easily.
Shine a light in the hole that was covered by the cover,you will see a cog type thing,looking at it edge-on.
Get a screw driver and turn this cog (it turns in an up - down manner,i.e. turn the cog by moving the screwdriver along the Y axis)
I can't remember which way to turn it,I just turn it the direction that gives the most resistance.
Get out and turn the wheel by hand,keep adjusting until you can feel a little bit of resistance,and then back off a touch,and repeat on the other side until you get the same results.

Then get inside and pull up the handbrake,it should only pull up about 4 - 5 clicks.
If it goes up too far get under,this time at the middle,and follow the handbrake cables back until you find the balance plate,where you will find a nut,tighten up this nut until you get the desired amount of travel on the lever.

If it doesn't go up far enough,loosen this nut

And afterwards you have a lovely working handbrake. If this hasn't worked take off the disk and inspect the state of the handbrake shoes inside the drum,sometimes people over-adjust them and they end up worn down

 

[The Viper]

How far up does your handbrake pull? What you need to do is:

Chock the front wheels with blocks
Jack up the whole rear axle at once and put it on stands,with the handbrake down
Crawl under and look at the back of the brake plate,there is a little rubber cover that you will be able to pick off pretty easily.
Shine a light in the hole that was covered by the cover,you will see a cog type thing,looking at it edge-on.
Get a screw driver and turn this cog (it turns in an up - down manner,i.e. turn the cog by moving the screwdriver along the Y axis)
I can't remember which way to turn it,I just turn it the direction that gives the most resistance.
Get out and turn the wheel by hand,keep adjusting until you can feel a little bit of resistance,and then back off a touch,and repeat on the other side until you get the same results.

Then get inside and pull up the handbrake,it should only pull up about 4 - 5 clicks.
If it goes up too far get under,this time at the middle,and follow the handbrake cables back until you find the balance plate,where you will find a nut,tighten up this nut until you get the desired amount of travel on the lever.

If it doesn't go up far enough,loosen this nut

And afterwards you have a lovely working handbrake. If this hasn't worked take off the disk and inspect the state of the handbrake shoes inside the drum,sometimes people over-adjust them and they end up worn down

thats a great description, thanks! It goes up about 7-8 clicks and still offers almost no resistance...Im gonna give it a try and post back

I was thinking the adjustment, like alot of vehicles, was inside the vehicle under the actuakl handbrake. Why did mitsubishi make it like this

 

[The Viper]

So i adjusted the "cog wheel" thing, pressing it down like 6 notches or so...this definitely improved the handbrake, i then adjusted on the adjusting nut where the cables come together, and tightened up the slack. Now it goes 6 clicks and holds real well. What bothers me, is that this whole process is so subjective, using strength as the deciding factor for determining whether or not the adjustments are right.

I consider myself a strong guy, so in regards to the rear wheels being spun by hand to where they are turning with a "little bit of resistance", for me its a little bit of resistance, for someone else it might be alot of resistance. Same thing in regards to the "clicks" of the handbrake. So i guess my question is, now that the parking brake holds, what if everything is too tight??? will i wear out the parking brake pads, greatly reduced gas mileage, etc?

 

[JamesW]

You will hear it giving a bit of a scraping noise as the wheel turns,it should turn relatively easy with the handbrake down,as in with the same resistance as the front wheels would turn with.

Maybe give the nut another bit of a tighten,I fixed mine after not working for ages,but I found that the cable had stretched a bit,and it needs the nut tightened a small bit now and again just to stop the handbrake needing pulled up too far.

I don't know about in the US but over here once it holds the truck the handbrake is good enough,there is no question of the travel on the lever.