So I've been working on a rear disc conversion for my 2000 Civic Cx and I've run into an issue with the brake calipers and the emergency / parking brake. I'm wondering if anyone else has ever experienced this issue before and if there is anyway remedy to fix it, or if I will need to replace the calipers. Read below and let me know what you suggest.

For reference here is a list of the parts I've swapped into my hatchback that affect the brake system:
-2000 Integra GS-R rear trailing arms, calipers, rotors, Left and Right.
-2000 Integra GS-R rear brake hose Left and Right.
-2000 Civic SI e-brake cables, Left and Right.
-2000 Civic SI brake proportioning valve.

Yesterday I finished up installing these parts. I thoroughly bled the entire brake system and while testing the brakes to see if they work properly (while on jack stands) my friend and I noticed that the parking brake doesn't hold the pads tight enough against the rotors. But pressing on the brake pedal works as expected.

Here are the different scenarios that we tested on both rear brakes:
-When no brake is applied, lever or pedal, the rotors spin freely (as expected).
-When the e-brake lever is pulled all the way up (I tightened the cables so the lever only goes up about 5 clicks) I can still rotate the rear rotors by hand but there is more contact than when the lever is down.
-When my friend stepped on the brake pedal I tried to rotate the rear rotors by hand and they were impossible to turn (as expected).

While watching my friend pull the e-brake lever up I can see that it is pulling the pin and spring on the back of the caliper cylinder.

So, from all this, I can't figure out what the issue is. Visually everything looks and moves properly, and the caliper pistons are working correctly because the brakes hold when the pedal is pressed down. They just don't hold when the e-brake lever is pulled all the way up.

First image e-brake lever down:


Second image e-brake lever up:


Thanks for reading.

 

Try checking the length on the e-brake lever arm, sounds like the lever may be too short to fully actuate the arm on the caliper.
Regards
Dave

 

Make sure the slot on the rear brake caliper piston is lined up with the pin on the brake pad. Also try loosening the emergency brake cables. It looks like you're running out of travel on the arm on the brake caliper. When the e-brake on my car is engaged it is barely past 90* to the cable.

 

I tried both loosening and over tightening the nut where the cables attach to the lever in the cabin and either way the spring on the caliper looked the same. I even disconnected the cable from the caliper and pushed the spring by hand and had my friend try to rotate the rotor, it still spun.

Ill check this week and see if the pins on the back of the pads are lined up with the slots on the caliper piston.

 

You are missing the clip that holds the ebrake cable in place om the bracket that is attached to caliper body. This may have something to do with it...

 

Yea I haven't put it in yet, but it doesn't affect how the spring is being pulled.

I had some time today to check this out and the nipple on the back of the brake pad was lined up correctly on the piston. Since I had the caliper off I decided to manually move the spring by hand, and when I did that the caliper barely moved at all, almost as if it weren't doing anything at all. Then just to double check that the piston was working properly, I put the brake pads in the caliper (so the piston wouldn't fly out of the caliper) and had my friend step on the pedal, and the caliper moved out normally.

So basically whatever that spring is attached to inside the caliper is not pushing the piston.

Any thoughts on this? Im curious if anyone else has run into this issue and how they fixed it.

 

i would lean towards the arm is not holding the shaft that needs to rotate to engage the caliper.

 

So I decided to buy new (refurbished) calipers for the rear, just to be safe since I got these off a junk car and the new set works great. Though...

...One thought I had, and I don't know if this would make a difference or not, is that when I originally hooked up and tightened the e-brake cable to the calipers, it was before i bled the brake system. So basically there was a lot of air in the brake system when I had attached the e-brake cable and tightened it.

So when I got the new pair of calipers, I left the e-brak cable disconnected, bled the brake system, then attached the e-brake cable last and everything worked properly. I can't confirm that this was the cause or not since I took of the other calipers. But maybe someone who has a better understanding of the brake system and calipers can post some insight about this.

Either way, my problem is now solved with the new calipers for piece of mind.

 

I am about to do this swap myself. Hope I don't run into an issue but that theory on bleeding the brakes before attachING the ebrake cables makes sense sorta. Gonna do that for sure

 

Good luck!

 

Just curious, did you run into any problems installing yours?

 

Hello, I know this is an old topic but I just recently encountered this problem after doing a caliper revision of the left rear brake. Afterwards the handbrake didn't function at all. I replaced the rear brake with another used one and tightened the screw in the middle console but the same problem persisted being that the drivers side cable coming more up that the passenger side.
I confirmed that the passenger side rear brake is also way weaker.
I can see the same as op when I look at the rear brake. The arm/spring construct has way more travel on the left side than the right side.
This means that the problem is inside the brake....
I bled the system already two times, no air.
During the bleeding the handbrake wasn't engaged and the sping arm made contact with the stop pin so I don't see how disconnecting the cable might be relevant.

Please help me, I exhausted most of my options..