Emergency Brake wont let go! 1985 911

[jgurnari]

there is play in my hand Emergency brake control lever...when I lift the E Brake handle I do not feel any tension from the cables...the handle moves freely. I think my E Brakes are "on" and the cables do not retract when I had let the handle down. Does Feel as though the E brake is on when I drive. How can I disengage the E Brake if its frozen on? What is the cause?

[proporsche]

It could several things..to find out you should remove your rear wheels.Remove your brake calibers(just 2x 19mm bolts-do not disconnect the brake line) and set it aside.There you will see the problem most likely your clips fell off the meeting point on the shoes.
here on this pic..

[proporsche]

here
http://www.darrylsgarage.com/911/911pbrak.jpg

[JSV798]

Over the years both handbrake cables on my 1978SC have partially seized in the outer sheath. I have replaced both of them at different times but used after-market cables and the outer sheath doesn't fit properly at the tunnel end, so recommend getting OEM cables. Symptoms were brakes slightly on and impossible to adjust the handbrake properly.

[jgurnari]

if that’s what I find, Should I just push the cable back into the retaining hole? Would that do it?...
great pictures, thanks

[jgurnari]

thank you very much learned a lot from you pitures

Originally Posted by proporsche

It could several things..to find out you should remove your rear wheels.Remove your brake calibers(just 2x 19mm bolts-do not disconnect the brake line) and set it aside.There you will see the problem most likely your clips fell off the meeting point on the shoes.
here on this pic..

[Walt Fricke]

When the cable is outside its hole, or when the expander arm is off its retaining pin, the result typically is that the parking brake doesn't work. So I am not clear how this could cause the shoes not to retract and cause the drag you wonder if you have. The springs which do the retraction are pretty stout. You can see pretty nicely from the pictures how this works - the cable pulls toward the center of the car, and the arms push the shoes outward against the springs.

First thing I'd do is jack up the rear of the car, put it in neutral, and turn the tire by hand. If you have a dragging E-brake shoe you should feel it. Otherwise, you have one of the problems shown, and a map of how to fix them.

[30westrob]

I have seen this before where the shoes were not properly adjusted and a strong pull on the hand brake allowed the shoe expander to go over center. the spring did not have enough force to push the expander out. We used a wire hook, through the hub whole to pull the expander out.
Rob

[Marc Bixen]

We've seen p-brake shoes stick to the rotor drum in the past, usually caused by long storage with the p-brake on, or rear brakes overheated (post track day). But the most recent was a while back, while using new Zimmermann "Z-coat" rotors, the p-brake shoes stuck to the coating on the drum. This coating aids in pad bed-in, but since we have been cleaning the z-coat coating from the inner drum prior to installation.