You just finished rear brakes on a vehicle, and now you must adjust the parking brake. You have an electric parking brake, which is automatic and it engages when the system deems it needs to be on, and it’s also activated by a button on the dash, and you have the old school pedal underneath the dash or the lever in the center console. You need to adjust this to make sure that the brakes function properly. Some will automatically adjust, but only so much.

If you’re replacing a caliper, one of the brake cables, you’re going to need the procedure to adjust the rear brakes. This is key that you follow the service information and the sequence that they want you to follow. On some vehicles, let’s say it’s a drum and hat, they first want you to adjust the parking brake shoes, then move on to the equalizer bar and then move on to either the lever or the pedal underneath the dash.

There are so many things that could be different on certain vehicles. For example, you may have a long SUV or van. That is actually going to have a slack adjuster on the pedal underneath the dash. To service this properly, you need to make sure that you’re adjusting it. You may have to hold the cable in with a couple of zip ties or other things to make sure that it’s stabilized and adjust it from there. Make sure you have the service information. This way when you return the vehicle back to the customer, the parking brake’s going to work the same way it should, and they’re not going to have complaints that either it takes too much force or comes up with too little force.

So with these methods of looking at the service information and following the procedure, you’re going to be able to service rear parking brakes a lot more efficiently. I’m Andrew Markel. Thank you very much.