[1stgenGT]

i pull the break up and its holding power is little if any...is there some sort of adjustment for this, and if so...where?

thanks

 

[siragan]

I´ve read in the paynes... er, haynes manual that you can adjust the parking brake cable by getting under the car and by the shifter linkage that there is some sortof cable that you can adjust, but I honestly dont know for sure.

I do know that you can pop out the center console and adjust the pull on the lever with a little nut thing, and that´s what I tried, and it basically picks up the slack, but my wheels still don´t lock like they should, so that probably won´t help you a whole lot.

Anyway, the haynes manual will tell you that you need to adjust the parking cable and the parking brake activating lever, which is located at the rear discs.

This involves going under the car, taking the heat shield off from where the resonator usually is (I think) and then disconnecting a thing called an equalizer, which is a fancy name for something that takes the one cable that comes from the handbrake and divides it into two cables which go to the individual wheels to actuatye the parking brake levers.

Anyway, I dunno exactly what the parking brake levers do, but chances are that adjustment of the cable won´t help you, because I have the same problem and it didn´t help me. It seems like whatever is supposed to be locking up the wheels in the bake mechanism itself has worn through anyways.

Either way, the orgin of the problem is that poor, ignorant people drive escorts and they fail to realize that the parking brake light is on when they turn on the car, then they complain to the mechanic that their car is smoking and by then they´ve fucked their car up anwyays.

I´ve NEVER driven an escort with a fully functional parking brake, ever.
All the people who drive escorts are morons. :-]

 

[Beaverboy]

On the 2nd gen LXs w/ drums you just remove the center console and there´s a 10mm adjustment nut right there on the side of the handbrake. You can probably get to it without taking off the console. Just a little FYI

 

[ghaze24]

Hey, you said its an 88 gt right, well to adjust your parking brake you will have to take out the middle console(where you arm rest is). Underneath this you will find a cable with a nut and a bolt(pretty sure) and you can make adjustments by tigtening the nut, if you can´t get your brake tight enough with this adjustment you probably need new pads for your drums in the back. hope that helps.

 

[Diane]

You could also need new cables, they stretch with age.

I have 2 out of 3 with functioning ebrakes, maybe a 4th but I haven´t tried it yet

 

[Clarkbug]

I dont know what the setup is for cables on the earlier ´scorts, but I do remember what my ´87 ranger had. :-D

Basically, the cable from your lever will hit the equalizer that siragan was talking about. On my truck there was a threaded rod on the equalizer that if tightened, it would pick up the slack in the parking brake.

Or, then again I could just be totally wrong, because this might only work on a ranger instead of an escort.

~Bug

 

[mkuchere]

Does the P-Brake lever actually pull all the way to the top before it barely engages?

If it does, you may need to buy 2 new auto-adjust mechanisms for the rear.
The teeth have a tendency to get worn off and the plate isn´t able to grip.