Hey Everyone,

I'm pretty new here but I'm having what should be a basic problem and I can't quite figure it out. I'm a mechanical engineer with a background in automotive engineering (so don't hold back on the tech talk).

I have a 2001 Civic Ex with rear drums. I just replaced my pads and drum bell housings, adjusted the ebrake cable to the service manual specification and can not get the e-brake to lock the rear wheels up when I'm driving.

Thoughts?
Thanks
Cole

 

First of all, I'd suggest you refer to it as a parking brake, not an emergency brake. As it's designed to help hold the car in place while it is parked. Pull it in an emergency and you'll make everything worse and more dangerous

Anyway. Does the parking brake work while the car is stationary? For example, put the car in neutral, set the parking brake, and see if it holds the car still. Or jack one side of the rear, set the brake, and try to turn the wheel that is lifted in the air.
I suspect it is working fine and you are expecting it to do things it is not meant to do, like lock the wheels while driving. If you really want to do that, look into a hydraulic parking brake and maybe a rear disc brake conversion too - something drift car drivers typically do.

 

Hey,

Thanks for the response. While the service manual does refer to it as parking brake I would argue that it is also commonly referred to as an emergency brake. It might be a little bit of a chicken and the egg situation as to where we settle on what it's capabilities should be I wouldn't mind that if at some point my brake lines exploded I could actually use that lever to stop the vehicle. I've never had a car (even older) where the hand brake couldn't do this task.

That argument aside, yes, I had both rear wheels off the ground with a friend slowly rotating them when I was adjusting the brake to identify when exactly the pads started to engage the drum. Next suggestion? My 1990 acura integra, 1992 mazda protege, 1999 mazda protege, 2009 subaru legacy, 1990 Mitsubishi Might Max (coolest mini truck name ever), 1987 Crown Vic LTD, 2015 wrx, 2008 Toyota Tacoma, and 1986 Nissan Stanza (in no particular order of ownership) all had hand brakes that could lock the rear wheels while driving with no significant effort. The Subaru's were the only vehicles I owned with rear discs. I'm not buying that they aren't capable of locking the drums.

 

Last time I tried it with my 2001 Civic HX I was not able to lock the rear wheels while driving with the parking brake (when I had drum rears). Maybe others can chime in with their experience on their cars. But if you followed factory adjustment procedures, it should be working as designed.

 

I have two EM2's.

Guess what neither of them do.


And what dumbass wants to skid to a stop anyway? I guess we should do away with ABS too then.

 

Color me surprised. Well. Thanks for the input guys! I would have never guessed! Maybe I'll look into this disc conversion?

 

The swap is pretty easy to do. You just need the whole rear knuckle setup and everything attached to it. Knuckle, calipers, hub, parking brake cables etc. I believe the factory Civic hydraulic line does not need to be swapped. Some suggest the brake bias valve too but I didn't use one. I also don't have ABS, so that may complicated things more if you do. But there are lots of write-ups online about the swap.

i pulled my rear setup from a junkyard Civic si hatchback 2002-2003 model year. The later ones had 5 lug wheels. Doing a full 5 lug swap is also easy, but I stuck with the stock 4 lug and my factory HX 14 inch alloys.
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The parking brake is also no more effective than the drums in my experience. It may actually be less effective.

I mostly did the swap for aesthetics and ease of maintenance, because I dislike working with drums.

 

so I actually have a hydraulic brake plumbed in too and this is all starting to make sense. Do you think that would work well with the disc?

 

I'm not sure what you mean. The brakes in all 4 wheels are hydraulically operated by the foot brake - basically every car is that way.
It is only the parking brake that is cable operated by the parking brake lever on both drum and disc from the factory.

Here are some links to swap how-tos
DIY: Rear Drum Brakes to Rear Disc Brakes [Archive] - 7th Gen Honda Forum - The #1 Community for 2001-2005 Honda Civic Enthusiasts
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/4...elled-out.html

 

I can't remember the last time I tried to lock up the rear brakes with the parking brake when driving but would think it would not be able to lock them up. I know you can drive with the parking brake on - don't ask - I did it once .. or twice but just for a few seconds
You can use it to drift in the winter but I don't advise it - although it is fun in a bare parking lot.
Only thing I can think of is to adjust the cable such that it is tight enough to lock them up but still unsure about this.

 

I need to make a thread about this...but let me preface this with...I found this car for $800...

I've done some pretty extensive off road builds in the past with 4runners and Tacomas and (of course during an alcohol fueled conversation) I told my friend it would be fun to have a civic with Forester level ground clearance. He said, "Dude, there's no way you'll be able to get a civic there between body interference and suspension geometry". You can imagine with an 800 dollar civic sitting in my garage that I had limped home on a bum clutch, this immediately spiraled out of control. A quick compression test revealed this 240k motor was a pretty close to death somewhere (could have been valve seals, head gasket, rings...way too much to care about this average motor). So...pulled motor/trans, rebuilt trans, found CL motor with 101k, new clutch, all new front suspension, ball joints, rod ends, rear wheel hubs, front wheel bearings, tie rods, brakes, ect...225/70-15, 30mm blocks, lots of chopping and welding...etc (I'm glossing over quite a few things)

Got bored along the way and plumbed in a dual master hydraulic cylinder drift hand brake into the rear end (downstream of the proportioning valve) which is what I was referencing. The OEM cable hand brake is still attached as well.

Anyways...I suppose at this point I should make a thread about this so you guys can laugh historically at this because that's about all you can do. Here's a teaser photo,
Cole

 

You chose poorly on this particular chassis. A previous generation Civic with wishbone front suspension would be far easier to lift then the MacPherson setup the 01+ Civics have.

 

Lol...REALLY!? (he said sarcastically) ...If I was picking a car to lift I would have bought a Subaru...but again, I bought a car for fuel efficiency and a decent crash rating...that was also dirt cheap...

did you read the part about "alcohol fueled decision making"???
Cole