Wilwood parking brakes

[another69]

Anyone happy with their internal park brake on rear Wilwood disks?

I have a 12.19" kit for a 9" rear on a 1st gen Camaro. I'm using the Lokar cable kit to connect to the stock pedal. The problem is, they don't hold the car well at all. I should be able to stand still on a slight incline, but it still rolls (slowly). I've adjusted them similar to drums. I was rolling down the driveway last night, pushing down on the pedal seeing if it would stop, and the Lokar cable snapped!! Actually, it just came out of the setscrews where the front cable connects with the 2 rears, but the screws were VERY tight, and now the cable is pretty frayed.

Am I doing something wrong??

[formula]

I have the same problem, same setup- lokar cables and wilwoods. Mine, too, seem weak- so much so that I can't even pull the lugs off the back wheels without having someone lock the real brakes down.

I can't help with what's wrong, but at least you know you're not the only one!

[garickman]

Same set up I have with the same problem!

[Vegas69]

I have the same setup and mine holds decent. It's not great on steep inclines. I used the factory pedal and routing with a lokar set up. I'm considering ditching the whole rear setup anyway. I think it may be a large contributor to my brake pad knock back. The offset of the rotor has to amplify it being that far from the axle flange. Are any of you also experiencing an erratic pedal height.

[another69]

Glad I'm not the only frustrated one! I don't see why it has such a crappy grip- the diameter is bigger than alot of factory setups that hold much better. It's not even borderline- IT JUST DOESN"T HOLD ON ANY REAL HILL. I should go with a pinion brake, but I don't want to just abandon what I have now, plus I paid extra for it. As for the lokar setup, they usually make decent stuff, but the setscrew retention is a poor design.

As for the pad knock back and erratic pedal height, never had it. I am VERY happy with the brake performance (minus the park brake). I took my time and shimmed the calipers to have equal distance between pad and rotor side to side, and a hard stop usually brings a smile to my face. What master are you running?

[Vegas69]

My calipers are centered perfectly. I'm running a 7/8 wilwood and manual brakes. Let me guess, you have power brakes or hydraboost? I'm switching to a 1" shortly.

[another69]

I'm running a manual setup too, but with a 1" bore master. Don't ask me why, but I used a cast iron master from Heidt's, which ended up being a marked up CPP unit. It's ugly, iron, and I spent some time to keep the lid from leaking, but it works. I want to change it in the future, though. I have 3/16 hardline with -3 hoses. I will never change to power or hydroboost, because the current setup works great. Pedal feel is better then my old setup. I used to have power, but my current motor has very little vacuum, so I did the manual swap along with 12.19" wilwoods all around. It's one of the few things on my car that worked great the 1st time!

What is your front setup?

[fishtail8]

I think if the cable setup was better they'd hold like designed. Having little setscrews trying to hold the cable in the clamp isn't enough. If someone could figure out a better system it wouldn't be an issue.

[another69]

I guess, but my 1 ton truck holds great, and I'm not pushing the park brake down nearly as hard, and it weighs about 9000#. It seems that the wilwood park / lokar cable together is a union of crap. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

[Vegas69]

I have SL6 and SL4. I'm happy to hear you've had good luck with your 1" bore. I have more caliper piston area which makes it worse as well. I also run R compounds in a 335 out back.

I had my cable pop out of the lokar setup and tightened it extremely tight and haven't had a problem since. I've used it at least a few hundred times since.. Adjust the shoes until you can barely get the drums seated. They'll find the sweet spot.

[wicked68]

my parking brake sucks too

[joeelutz]

You need to bed the parking brake shoes just like you would the brake pads. Try driving it while applying the parking brake to break in the shoes and the drums. Get them hot, but not overheated. After they are broken in, you may need to readjust the shoes.

[Wilwood Tech]

The most likely culprit for unsatisfactory internal drum parking brake woes is cable routing. Bends in a cable can significantly reduce the pull force at the brake. To ensure maximum performance, the cables must be routed as staight as possible. Tight bends should be avoided with a minimum bend radius of 8 inches. Additionallly, cables should be properly restrained to prevent "straightening" of bends when tension is applied. If this information doesn't help, please call our tech line for further.