I asked a repair shop to adjust my E brake as it was not working at all. The SA said he did not think it could be adjusted. I thought BS. It was adjusted and works fine. My question is the adjustment simply turning an adjuster to take up slack in the cable or it is more complex?

Based on the SA response I am looking for a new shop. I think he just makes up things.

 

I haven't adjusted it at the handle end (I'm sure you can) but on mine it needed some adjustment of the rear shoes. There's a little star adjuster on both sides that's supposed to automatically adjust as the shoes wear, but doesn't. You need to get in there and adjust that so there's just the slightest drag when the rotors are put back on, but they can still spin freely. My guess is now they don't have any friction at all and pulling the handle doesn't move the shoes out enough to do anything. Yes it does require removing the rear calipers and rotors, unless you're lucky enough to be able to adjust it through the little hole in the rotor (there's a rubber plug, if you turn the rotor to where that plug is at 6-oclock and remove the plug you might be able to adjust it with a screwdriver on the little star wheel--I haven't had much luck with this method).

 

I think you can adjust the cable under the jeep as well.

 

AT last I can help out ! JK 2011 Sahara manual.. to adjust the Ebrake, you HAVE to remove the calipers. E-brake OFF....I now just remove the two 18mm bolts and slide the caliper up the disk out of the way and tie it off. This way the piston does not ease out and not fiddle assing around to get it back on. This will give you access to the tiny hard to find oval access hole in the back plate to rotate the annoying little star. An old fashioned brake spoon is very helpful. DO NOT remove the rotor to try and do it the easy way as you will not get enough movement/expansion on the shoes for the ebrake to be effective. Later when you need to remove the rotor for brake work you WILL NEED to back off the star so that the rotor which will now have a tiny lip on it can clear the shoes and come off.
I found a powerful small LED light that you can literally hold between your teeth very useful to illuminate the annoying star through the hole. Then start the tedious task of ratcheting it up. Passenger rear side turns towards the front to expand the shoes, drivers side, towards the back.
It is likely the most aggravating Jeep job out there !
THEN, after all that is done, go up to the e-brake handle, look through the hairy stuff and you'll see, using the previous LED flashlight, a small square tab on the drum on the side of the drum. I used a small, long open ended wrench to sit on that tab, then unceremoniously whack the wrench with a hammer towards the back of the vehicle. That will take up the tiny amount of slack in the cable.
Now if all is good, you should have a reasonably functioning e-brake.
1) you gotta remove, or at least move the caliper to access the hole through the back plate
2) you do NOT remove the rotor at all ( only plus in this job)
3) really annoying, yet simple job
4) there is no other way
I have lived in countries where these kinds of e-brakes are common and have done them on several different vehicles over the years, this Jeep is by far the worst design out there. Some you just crank the handle a few time and done, not this Jeep
I hope this proves useful to some of you. I finally figured it all out after about 4 attempts over a couple of months, before the whole procedure came together for me.

 

The lousy e-brake has seen much discussion over the years on this forum. The only adjustment is as FollowsMeEverywhere describes above: The two star wheels. And he does not mention that one of them is difficult to see because the dust shield hole to access it is not properly lined up. Another issue is the e-brake handle. RonJenx has done a detailed write-up on that, if you care to search for that. But the bottom line is to either keep it clean (WD-40 works nicely to clean and lube) or you can do a mod to improve the tension on the handle. This post shows one approach to that ...

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/stoc...4/#post4323160