Here's how the parking brakes work on your car:

The parking brake is a manually operated braking system that prevents the vehicle from rolling when stopped.

It is activated by a hand brake or in this case, a foot brake actuator that leads down to a cable:


The cable goes underneath the vehicle, where its split to the two rear wheels:


The rear drums house the parking brake mechanism:


Inside are the shoes, the adjuster and spring, and the actuator lever at the bottom which attaches to the cable. When the cable is pulled on, the actuator lever expands causing the shoes to expand outward against the drum.


These are what the shoes look like when removed. Rusty...


This is the ratcheting mechanism inside the foot brake:


Enjoy

 

Nice video as usual, speedkar.

It seems to deal with older systems, though. Most vehicles nowadays, all except cheap entry-level ones, have 4-wheel disc brakes, with rotors and pads in the rear instead of drums and shoes. Some vehicles with 4-wheel discs actually have a smaller drum-brake assembly, inboard of the outer disks, that is used only as a parking brake.

Also, a growing number of vehicles nowadays (again, almost all except entry-level) use an electric switch or button activation instead of the traditional hand-levers or step-on devices.

 

Thanks you for putting all this together. A very interesting read. I was not aware the parking cables spilt to both wheels, I always thought it was just one side.

 

This allows for the brake hold option. My 07 Ls460 got me hooked on that. That and blind spot monitor are my two favorites. My LS lacked the blind spot monitor, one reason I sold it. I added it aftermarket but it didn’t work very good. New Jeep Grand Cherokee’s don’t have electric e-brakes and believe it or not new BMW X1’s don’t even offer blind spot monitor.

 

[QUOTE=mmarshall;10651633]Nice video as usual, speedkar.

It seems to deal with older systems, though. Most vehicles nowadays, all except cheap entry-level ones, have 4-wheel disc brakes, with rotors and pads in the rear instead of drums and shoes. Some vehicles with 4-wheel discs actually have a smaller drum-brake assembly, inboard of the outer disks, that is used only as a parking brake.

And as I learned the hard way, Practicing J-turn parking by jerking up the handle for the parking brake can break the small springs that secure drum shoes in place!

 

Fixed the quote and reply for you, byprodrive.