74 Rear brakes

[TopDown94]

Ok guys....this one has me stumped. The rear brakes on my 74 are disc, but when I got the car, the parking brake was not working. Upon Inspection, I have discovered that both rear cables at the disc/caliper are not hooked to anything....DUH !:confused What is going on here? I cant find anything to hook them up too. There is a ball located on the end of the parking brake cable, but i cant seem to locate anything to connect it too. The rear brakes calipers are 4 piston Delco-Moraine. These are the ones that are supposed to be on the car from what I have found out about it. Anyone got any ideas here?

I really want to keep this car, but its giving me fits. This was the last year of no cats on the exhaust, and is a pretty basic car as far as electrical and stuff goes. But these brakes are giving me fits, any help would be appreciated.

Rikoad

 

[Silver78]

If its like my 78, the rear brakes are disk and drum together. All you can see from taking the wheel off are the disks but inside the disks are drum brakes for the e-brake only. Kinda wierd design but thats it.

 

[TopDown94]

If its like my 78, the rear brakes are disk and drum together. All you can see from taking the wheel off are the disks but inside the disks are drum brakes for the e-brake only. Kinda wierd design but thats it.

You are right....I guess this will be one of those weekend projects.....might as well rebuild the rear calipers while im there.....what the heck....i will go ahead and replace them too, guess if im going to keep this one might as well start replacing it all.

 

[Jack]

Deja Vu

Riko ... Not laughing AT you ... but WITH you. Because I felt the very same way as you when I first saw a C3 emergency brake ... Funny, like deja vu all over again. Good Luck!
Jack:gap

 

[billagroom]

I can relate too when I got my 79 some one took the guts out of one drum I replaced them with after market stainless steel guts they should last more than 22 years this time.

 

[Pedro'74]

The cables should be connected to a "hook", which is sort of "under" the caliper. Maybe the hardware was rust-frozen and somebody simply disconnected the cables?

Here's my story: when I bought the car I took it to a mechanic to fix the parking brake. The guy did fix the lever, but the parking brake never really worked. I figured the cable may have stretched or something, and I care so much about it that I never took the car back to get it adjusted. Last year I decided to finally adjust it before the state inspection, and found that there was really nothing there: no shoes or anything inside the rotor. So I started the parking brake rebuild in August 2000, and I'm just about to finish it now! You know, I couldn't install that new shiny SS parking brake hardware on that funky car, so I had to rebuild the whole rear suspension, rear end, gas tank, paint the frame, paint the engine, new exhaust, etc etc...

-Pedro

 

[Fast Ed]

me 2

I just went thru the exact same thing. Went with SS all the way.

 

[Vanity Plate Bob]

I'm told the park brake should be used, on all vehicles, regularly. Especially in wet climate areas. Helps keep moving parts movable. A cable with the spiral metal cover can be oiled as the oil will penetrate thru the cover. Vinyl covered ones of course can not.

Distant cousin of Mr Goodwrench

 

[The73vetteman]

Had the same experience myself. Took the discs off the back and there was nothing inside. As the guys above said, they tend to rust up and then people just strip everything off. That's one thing with an automatic but when you have a 4 spd it can be a problem. Good thing my part of Michigan is pretty flat!

Anyway, the ball on the end of the cable should be hooked around a lever that goes through the backplate. This operates another lever that pushes apart the tops of the shoes and applies the braking effort.

The Corvette Central website has some diagrams if you dont have a shop manual. Best to get a manual tho'.

I've spent many hours wrestling with the parking brake, so if you need any more help just ask.

'73

 

[GTR1999]

Sounds like someone "fixed" the PB already by removing the levers and springs,maybe the shoes too? Look at the rotor to see if the rivets are still in them. If not then someone has been visiting.

If you want them to work you'll have to remoave the caliper,rotor and look to see what you have. Be prepared for a mess if your visitors were hacks!

Also you have a 30 year old sports car that was probably beat on for a while-most are. Expect that you will need continual work to keep it on the road. This will be expensiv eif you don't perform the work yourself so you need to think about what you want out of the car and what you will do with it. If you "marry " it then you have it for life and fix it as required. If you think you have an investment because "corvettes never loose money" sell it now and save yourself a ton of work and money. I talked to guy with a 74 this week that had $1,000 more into the car then it was worth and it still needed thousands of dollars worth of work.

I'm not trying to turn you off to the car but I don't want to see anyone get in over their heads with then either.
Good Luck

 

[rgtrough]

The Marriage

Hey Coupeman, I also have married my shark. In it for the long run. I have many, many more thousands of dollars invested in my '74 than I could ever recover. Not to mention time and labor. But, none of my other rides have kept me company during the winters. Nor the pleasure and satifaction in the summer.

I like the comparison to marriage. peace Bud :cool

 

[GTR1999]

I hear you man,the best part is you can walk away from the car when you've had enough!! The next day it's still there where you left off!!

 

[ChuckG]

Replacing and/or working on the parking brake system in any disc brake Corvette from 65-82 is a TRUE hassle. It's a terribly difficult system to access, especially for someone with big hands. Because of this difficulty, that it why you see so many cars with disabled EBrake systems. You'll also find cars with the entire EBrake shoe system removed.

The EBrake system is exactly like a "mini drum brake" system within the rear rotor...little springs, shoes, levers, etc. You can buy SS kits from just about all the vendors. I've always heard that you're better off using all SS hardware, but NOT SS shoes. Apparently the SS shoes hold the heat and tend to warp more than regular steel. Chuck