My wife’s 97 Escort has four wheel disc brakes. I noticed the parking brake wasn’t working and found that the cable on the right side had seized in the ‘braked’ position (the lever on the caliper was pulled down). The brakes, however, while driving seem to be ok. I replaced the cable and even though both cables are working properly now no braking is taking place. Can I adjust the caliper so that when the parking lever is pulled down it actually brakes, or do I have to replace the caliper (as a local repair shop wants to do)?
[b]To properly adjust the rear brakes on your vehicle requires the operation of the parking brake.
Since you’ve just repalced the parking brake cables, make sure there’s very little slack in the main cable running back to the two cables you just replaced that run to each rear wheel. Then go and operate the parking brake several times to ratchet the pistons out to adjust the pads to the rotors. And see if the brakes work then.
If not, then the calipers probably need replacing.
Tester[/b]
Excellent, thank you very much for replying. I’ll try that out tonight.