My emergency break is really loose and does not hold my jeep in place when stopped. I don't like leaving it in gear all the time while on hill's etc. I've heard there is an adjustment to tighten it but any help would be much appreciated.

I had this same problem. Are you sure you are pulling it up all the way. You really have to yank it hard for it to engage correctly.

x2 i've got the same problem and the tightener looks tight on mine.

my 04 X does the same. i took it to the dealer when it was under warranty, and they said it was fine. i argued the point, so they tightened it, but it still seems to be lose.

Check the line, and make sure its working at the brake end.. i.e. have a 2nd person pull it while you look to see what is or is not going on. That being said, I never use mine.

me three... I pull up all the way. Jeep can still move.

Mine use to be that way... Every time I'd yank the dang thing up after I park... now a year later, it holds the jeep in place in a hill. I know this because I forgot the thing was on yesterday and hit the gas, went no where. Who knows...

you guys better start eating your wheaties!!! u have to pull it hard!!

Use to eat Captain Crunch, Until I found out he was a cerial killer...lol

It all depends on the year of the Jeep. Some TJ guys are answering so it makes a big difference. From what I read on another forum, '07 and '08 JK's are self adjusting. '09's are manually adjusting. I don't have a clue about 10's.

It's an "emergency" brake

Shift autos into PARK and sticks into 1st gear. no moves !!

JIMBO

hehe... any vehicle with 4 wheel disc brakes does NOT have a "parking brake"... it's an "emergency brake"

seriously, I've gotten WAY deep on this with a chevy dealer.

Parking brakes were invented when hydraulic brakes first came out, because any fluid/pressure loss meant no more brakes. having that mechanically operated e-brake meant you could still stop your jalopey.

On vehicles with 4 wheel disc brakes, you don't have the mechanical drum brakes in the back you can yank with a cable... you got hydraulics. The "emergency brake" on your 4 disc equipped vehicle works one of two ways... it either yanks the calipers manually witha cable, or you have a set of TINY drum shoes INSIDE your disc (Somoen help me out? I'm not sure which method JK's use) If it's a cable that pulls the calipers, then good news: you only have one set of brakes on the back to worry about... the downside is that no matter HOW HARD you yank that lever up, you will never even come close to the pressure of the hydraulic pedal. (a hydraulic cylinder the size of your arm will lift tons... how much can your arm lift?)

If you got the drum shoes inside the discs, it's not any better... you basically have a tiny pair of wimpy little shoes that belong on a radio flyer wagon trying to hold a 2 ton Jeep, and in this case you have TWO issues... the first is that if you REALLY yank the bejeezus out of your handle you can crush the inside of the shoe (I did this in a Silverado... stood on the e-brake pedal and smashed the lever point on all 4 shoes). The second issue is that if you use them while you are driving, the poor little things are incapable of "locking up" the disc, and the friction under all that pressure will wear them to nothing after only a handful of uses.

If you talk to a chevy dealer about how ****ty the shoes are, the canned response you get is that it is an EMERGENCY brake and not a PARKING brake, so it should only be used in emergencies. Not sure what a Jeep dealer would say, but I imagine it might sound a little similar

So having said all that, if you want a good parking brake effect, you need to put some oomph into it, and no amount of adjustment will cause less oomph to be required... however, even with your best oomph applied, make sure you leave it in gear or in park, as appropriate. In a 4 wheel disc equipped vehicle, the transmission is by far your best bet to keep your Jeep from doing a little "no hands, no feet, no driver" off-roading.

Nice description.

Check out your rear rotors. They are mounted on a small drum. The E-brake is inside thar.

I can push my E brake to the floor and leave it in gear and a very small hill it will roll backwards (not forwards). The E Brake seems to work going forwards. I checked and the cable looks fine. I normally bring a chock with me if there is a chance I have to park on a hill.

Don't you have a transmission ???




JIMBO

Every vehicle works that way. Put the parking brake on and you can still drive backward. Go forward and you will hear it fighting you.

They have the little shoes inside the rotor. Totally useless.

I've had mine adjusted several times and it only lasts a few months or a trip or two out on the trials and it's back out of whack.

My driveway is so steep 1st gear wont hold and I got tired of finding my heep in the street, so I gave up and got a chock block.

so the resolution to this is???? we're screwed??? hard to believe. there has to be a fix for this.... besides chock blocks

You REALLY have to pull up hard. Enough so you have to put it down using two hands. After you yank on it, pull it up a couple more clips....I almost broke the E brake on my Subaru because I'm so used to the Jeep.

This is a completely bogus statement because one of the functions of the hand brake is to hold the vehicle on a steep hill for start. Of course it holds when rolling back. If it doesn't, fix it.
-- Pete

P.S. It works fine on a 2010, but it's quite new. The manual says specifically that the brake is not self-adjusting. Maybe the star clickers were unreliable and they got rid of them, or likely Chrysler wanted to save a few cents deleting them. Or both.

Crawl underneath and take a wrench to the tightener. Have a nice big bottle of PB lube or something with you. If your having trouble turning the bolt... do it with ebrake on and use a pair of pliers to hold the bracket.

In the meantime Scott !!


Drive up the driveway and turn a little cattywhumpus and turn your front wheels away from the hill, put it in reverse and set the brake !!

JIMBO

FWIW
There were known issues with the TJs (don't recall the years)parking brake not holding and the transmission not fully engaging in park and/or popping out of park.

Example. Buddy of mine has an LJ. He put it in park, exited the vehicle to go look over a ledge on a trail we were riding. The Jeep beat him down the hill, crashed into another guys rig, nearly pushing it AND the guys family that were in the other vehicle over a ledge.

Scared both wives and one daughter nearly to death. Thank goodness the second vehicle was heavy enough to stop it.

Yea, e-brakes are pretty important when you stop on a hill. You just never know.

Adjusted mine several times over the past year and half .Even tried the hard jerk it would almost hold on a hill till finally I broke the cable where it attaches to handle .So now I installing a "Micro Loc" brake they now call it a "Lever Loc" in the brake lines it will LOCK ALL 4 WHEELS .

Thank You

with inner disc drum shoes you can expect your E-brake NOT to hold on a steep hill at all without putting a LOT of tension on it. Use the tranny, and if you regularly park on steep hills, get a chock.

I'd also HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you NEVER, EVER (!!!) test to see if it will hold while in gear. Every single slippage will wear the shoes because they are so small.