New pads & now parking brake won't hold?

[whiterabbit]

Fresh pads all around,new hoses,new compensator, and flushed the lines now I can't get the parking brake to hold. I screwed the pistons in with the line on top and bleed 'em like mad too. Compensator adjusted with load on the axle. Tightened the p brake cable thinking that was it but no dice. The p brake cams are moving at the calipers but I can still turn the wheels by hand with some effort. The p brake worked fine prior to the work.
I'm stumped! Any ideas? Carry a brick to throw under the tire?

[vandor]

Was the handbrake down when you screwed the pistons back? I did that once and the handbrake did not work. It took several times of moving the piston out and screwing it in before it worked again.

[whiterabbit]

Yea the handbrake was released/down when I installed the pads. I screwed the pistons in just enough to fit the pads. Should I pull the calipers and try to run the pistons out one turn?
Perhaps there's still air in the rear lines preventing the calipers from fully operating/closing on the rotors.

[rlux4]

The parking brake works on purely mechanical, not hydrolic pressure. Do you have any resistance when you pull the e-brake handle? In other words, is the cable adjusted correctly?
Ron

[131]

The handbrake mechanism has always been a week link, the pads will hold better when they're bedded in. My car will hold when facing downhill, but I have to leave it in gear when facing uphill or it rolls.

[whiterabbit]

Yea the cable is adjusted. I had the adjuster cranked in to the point you only had 3 clicks when you pulled up on the hand brake. I now have it slacked to the 4th or 5th click but you can turn the wheels with some good effort while it's on the stands and it'll roll down a moderate grade with the brake engaged. Hope the pads (ceramic) bed in a lil faster!
Thinking of adjusting the comp to allow a lil more braking to the rear, the car is lowered a good bit , doesn't have much nose dive and I've yet to lock up the rear brakes on very hard stops.
Guess I'll keep tinkering....

[124ADDHE]

Sounds like your pistons are corroding up or your e-brake cable has lots of corrosion and isnt transmitting much of your effort. I had 2 rear calipers nearly seized, a brake cable frozen on one side and it still held, didnt realise how bad the rears were until i went to rebuild everything, i knew it wasnt great (didnt hold the steepest grades without being in gear), but i had no idea how bad the rear circuit was! have a look, you may too be suprised