Since I have owned my 08 JK I have been having issues with the rear brakes squealing when I back up. The emergency brake hasn’t worked very well and I was never satisfied that everything was functioning properly.

This weekend I was finally able to inspect the rear brakes and emergency brake. What a disaster. First I found that the brake pads needed replacing. The rotors were sketchy but I could get them turned. It was when I tried to get at the E brake that the shit hit the fan. I could not get the rotors off. I tried to adjust the spur gear to take the shoes out of the question and that’s where the problems started.

For those of you who do not know the emergency brake or parking brake is located on the inside of the rear rotors. They are dual duty rotors. The emergency brake is a ‘drum’ style brake on the inside.

The shoes are held on by two pins and clip springs on the inside to keep them tight against the dust shield. In my situation I could not adjust the shoes down far enough to get the rotors off over the shoes. The rotors were so rusted on the inside there was a rust lip on the outer edge catching the shoes. I ended up cutting the pins and removing the spur gear adjuster with needle nose pliers. At that point everything came apart. What I found was disgusting. As you can see in the schematic (taken from Morris 4x4 centre web site) of the emergency brake has an actuator and lever, #10 and #11 of the schematic. These were totally rusted and seized on my jeep. They were the biggest problem. If they don’t work then the E brake doesn’t work. The spur gear just keeps the other end of the shoes close to the ‘drum’ so that when you apply the E brake the actuator pulls the lever and the shoes push out to hold the shoes against the drum.


After I got the rotors off the inside of the rotors or the ‘drum’ portion of the rotors was completely rusted out with the exception of where the shoes had been running against the drum. There was a channel where the shoes had been rubbing all along. I purchased my Jeep used and I don’t think anyone had ever been inside the e brake for maintenance ever.

After all is said and done I will have all new rear brakes. I ordered rotors & pads and complete new insides for the emergency brake. When I put it back together I will make sure it’s a little more rust proof. Right now I am running without an emergency brake and I have to admit it drives a lot nicer, it actually coasts better lol.

As a recommendation I would say everyone should inspect their e-brakes at least twice a year and right away if you haven’t yet or you are experiencing issues.

 

Yeah that is a royal pits! Need mine about two months ago. No fun at all.

 

This is typical for this type of E brake set up kind of a piss poor design if you ask me . Make shure when you put it back together you paint all the hardware with some good paint and use white grease where acceptable unfortunately the rotors will still get the wear lip in them making them hard to get off the next time also . The cheap metal the use for the rotors is very prone to rusting and there isn't much you can do to stop it. I just clean mine up every two years when I put new pads on and get ride of as much rust as I can and I also use a small dremel with a grinding stone to clean off the lip. I found out its cheaper to replace the pads and do a little cleaning B4 you start to hear the grinding of the pads.

 

^I'll keep that in mind.

What I plan on doing is 'treating the shoes with some sot of rust inhibitor that will not come off such as 'never-seize' or something like it. The E brake doesn't move but would heat up I guess with normal use of driving. Wherever there is friction there is heat. If I paint the metal portion of the shoes or other parts of the e brake it will undoubtedly rust further. I want something that inhibits rust. Too bad they didn't make some sort of valve that forces the pads closed at the back and use that as the e brake instead of the piss poor design of what we have now.

 

i know other vehicles have just such a system. I think Corvettes do (or did for a while).

Is it possible we can mod a different caliper onto the rear system that gets rid of the drum-style e-brake?

 

When you say you got the "complete new insides" I assume you mean springs, retainers, etc. Where did you get them?

 

i have an 08 as well, i have had mine repaired 3 TIMES under waranty so far. I understand I park on a SLIGHT incline every time I'm home, but there is absolutely no reason why I should be pulling my e-brake up all the way so my Jeep doesn't drift away. But then when I do get it fixed, it only lasts for like a month or so, like now, I'm up for another fix for the e-brake, I have to pull it up all the way.

 

My e-Brake stopped working for the second time about 1 month ago. This past weekend I finally took it all apart for the second time. I cleaned out the e-brake mechanism and shoes, sanded the shoes and inside the rotor to clean it up, and adjusted the shoes out far enough to where I could barely wiggle the rotor.

E-Brake is working again ... holds tight on around the 4th or 5th click half way up. Not sure how long that will last since I had done the same thing about 6 months ago.

The brake shoes don't seem to wear .. they just seem to self-adjust in the wrong direction and eventually don't contact the rotor ....

 

Carquest Auto Parts can get the spring kit and shoes. I paid $40 here in Canada + tax for the spring kit. It comes with everything you need for the replacement. They wanted $100 for a set of shoes + tax here so I cleaned up the old ones as they had the same amount of meat on them as the new ones. I had to get the spreader mechanism from the stealership and paid $26 each and $7 each for the arms that the cable attaches to.

 

This type of design is fairly common on vehicles with rear disc brakes. I had an '04 F-250 superduty 4x4 and the rear brake setup was the same/similar just larger.