Hey

Bought my 98 civic ex about 3 years ago. Had a solid ebrake when I bought it. Slowly faded over time. Failed safety the other day due to it barely holding the car. Came home found one of the brakes wasn't connected to the handle. Fixed that. Held better but still failed. Adjusted the handle to the point of it not pulling up all the way but about as tight as I could go before they engaged due the tension.

So tonight pulled the drum brake apart. Found the automatic adjuster wheel. The one side seemed extremely tight. Hard to get the drum off. The other side was pretty sloppy. Thought I tightened the one side enough to get it to the point it needed to be at (drum barely went back on and dragged slightly while spinning it). Car is the same. Wondering where to go from here. Feeling dumb. Any and all input appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

Your drums might be too far out of spec that when you pull the ebrake the shoes barely contact the drums.

Measure your drums abd compare to specs

 

You could be right. The brakes make good contact on the drums though. That would leave me to believe the drums are in spec and there isn't a problem as far as that issue goes. I could be wrong though.

 

You're talking about a car that's 15 years old. That means the parking brake cables are also 15 years old. Those cables stretch over time. You probably just need to replace them.

 

The cables pull tight before I get to the top of travel. I know it has tension on it. The brakes just don't seem to hold. I adjusted them today in the drum and still has the same problem. Any other ideas?

 

Id replace the shoes and drums, new contact surfaces should help hold it down nice and tight. Drum brakes are cheap and like said above they could be 15 years old and all glazed up from years of use.