Emergency brake question
Emergency brake question
I'm trying to paint my calipers this weekend. I want to take them off the car to paint them this time around. I am going to be unable to leave the car on stands. My question is, does the emergency brake have anything to do with the main brake calipers? Can I engage the emergency brake, take the caliper off, plug the brake line with something, put the wheel back on and drop the car back to the ground?
Re: Emergency brake question
Also, any thoughts on what I can use to plug the brake line...readily accessible at autozone, Home Depot, pep boys, or something?
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svard75
- Posts: 1564
- Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 3:26 am
- Car: 06 M35x
- Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Emergency brake question
Yes the emergency brakes are drum and shoe and they use a cable. Just make sure you have sufficient shoe pad left so the brakes are engaged. LOL this reminds me of a couple of incidents that happened to me. One with this car and one with another.
I'll start my story with the other car since it's scary and funny at the same time. So I jacked the car up on stands and painted the brake calipers and replaced the pads all four. I used a large C clamp to push the pistons all the way in. Then I lowered the car without the emergency brake engaged and (This was a 5 spd vehicle) the gear shifter was in neutral. As I lowered the last wheel and removed the blocks the car began to ever so slowly roll backwards. It was on an angle facing my neighbors truck parked in his driveway. I turned and sort of heard some movements so turned back and the car was movin. I quickly ran for the door jumped in and started applying the brakes. Guess what?! The pedal went down to the floor. So I quickly started pumping them up and stopped the car about 1 foot away from my neighbors truck!
My other story. This car had the rear in the air and the fronts down. I had the parking brake engaged (DUH) but didn't put any blocks under the wheels (Was rushing). As soon as I finished jacking up the second rear wheel and removed the wheel. I started checking things out and luckily had all my limbs out from under the car because it went back and bang. Twisted my jack to s*** and landed on the disk. My heart was in my throat lol.
Anyway always use wheel blocks regardless if using emergency brakes and try to work on as level a surface as possible. have fun!
I'll start my story with the other car since it's scary and funny at the same time. So I jacked the car up on stands and painted the brake calipers and replaced the pads all four. I used a large C clamp to push the pistons all the way in. Then I lowered the car without the emergency brake engaged and (This was a 5 spd vehicle) the gear shifter was in neutral. As I lowered the last wheel and removed the blocks the car began to ever so slowly roll backwards. It was on an angle facing my neighbors truck parked in his driveway. I turned and sort of heard some movements so turned back and the car was movin. I quickly ran for the door jumped in and started applying the brakes. Guess what?! The pedal went down to the floor. So I quickly started pumping them up and stopped the car about 1 foot away from my neighbors truck!
My other story. This car had the rear in the air and the fronts down. I had the parking brake engaged (DUH) but didn't put any blocks under the wheels (Was rushing). As soon as I finished jacking up the second rear wheel and removed the wheel. I started checking things out and luckily had all my limbs out from under the car because it went back and bang. Twisted my jack to s*** and landed on the disk. My heart was in my throat lol.
Anyway always use wheel blocks regardless if using emergency brakes and try to work on as level a surface as possible. have fun!