Can anyone tell me exactly how the emergency brake works? I am an old gear head and am use to these being cable actuated to the rear drum brakes. the JK has 4 wheel disc and there is probably some new fancy way these work with the rear calipers. I am hoping it is totally independent from the computer. I had my wife practice with it today on our mountainous gravel road and she said it did not work well. She may need it since I have the brake bug. Thansk for any assistance.

 

I am not sure how exactly it works, but I know that it takes alot of effort to pull it enough to hold the jeep. My girlfriend can barely pull it into position without using both hands.

 

Not 100% on this one, but I think it uses a drum type system inside the rear brake rotors.

 

You're right, Renegade. It uses a drum system in the rotors. If you are used to working on an old drum type system, then this will be very familiar to you.

 

When I got my jeep, the emerg. brake was very hard to get it to stop the vehicle. But now when i tried it yesterday....it worked great and with out effort. Hummmmm. My jeep is 2 weeks old.

 

I don't think it is actually designed as an "emergency" brake, but as a "parking" brake. It should be able to hold the Jeep once it is stopped, not stop it while moving.

 

In my JK Unlim Sahara I was parked on a slight decline right above a huge rock wall. I got out to find the best way out and the e-brake gave out on me and the Jeep started to go down the rocks out of control. My wife and a fellow Jeep-er's daughter was in the truck! I was able to jump in and apply the "real" brake in time but we bottomed out a bit and messed up a skid plate pretty bad.

So DO NOT rely on the emergency brake!

I have a question though. Is there a way to tighten the brake to avoid this happening again and to make it a bit easier to apply the brake to full compression?

 

Not very well!

 

thats odd... i have 35's and while it doesn't come screaming to a stop, i've played around with it and it definately has some stopping power even with the 35s. i sure hope i never need it to come to a stop, but if i did i feel it would be up to the task with a good strong tug on the lever. and as a parking brake, it needs to be pulled really tight to hold it in place, if you don't pull it really tight the jeep will roll away, but as long as you pull it up far enough she'll stay put for you. as far as adjustment, i'm not sure if there are any cable adjustments to take out the slack, but someone once told me you can adjust drum brakes by pressing the brakes kinda hard while backing up... being that the JKs parking brake is a drum inside the rotor and this method actually works, then it should still apply. If not, then you would have to remove the wheel, caliper and rotor and turn the adjustment peice inside the drum brake mechanism until you can just barely put the rotor on over it. Good luck!

 

my parking brake works very well. I can lock up my rear tires at speed just lifting the brake handle about 60%.. And i have OEM tires which probably have better grip on the street than offroad tires