OK,

2 times and no luck in properly adjusting my parking brake / emergency brake. I followed the FSM, or at least I thought I did.

There are 10 detents, not 12 like the FSM says. Not sure what that means.

However, I thought it would be simple as just turning the star wheel. Not.

The Sleeper ... for all its faults, really needs the parking brake / emergency brake. I got a barely noticable drag when I push it all the way to the floow ... all 10 clicks.

What am I doing wrong ????????? I plan on tackling this right after work and this weekend I have to check out the front brakes. The front "pulsing" and now some smoke and the stink of brakes is really concerning me. This is probably not simple rust, although everything is rusted thru and malfunctioning to some degree, but how tough can emergency / parking brakes be ????

Any ideas out there ?

Were you able to get the shoes tight with the star wheel?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Get underneath the car. Check each cable, make sure it can move freely. Haven't had the benz parking brake apart yet. Best advice I've gotten about parking brakes is from a haynes book- Only disassemble 1 side at a time save the other for reference.

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

Plenty of ideas but we need a little bit more information...

...show us what you've done so far.

Have you removed the brake drums to see what is happening? Looking at the system and working out how it works often reduces the chances of getting it wrong.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

often the problem is lack of shoe material... or broken/rusted components.
pull the drums and inspect... take pics and post em. we'll figure it out.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Do you want vehicle-specific ideas?

OK, My Bad. W123 Chassis Platform.

I took off the driver's side (left) rear drum and double checked the up to down mumbo jump (might be vice versa) I had the print out from the FSM with me. After I had the drum off, I could tell that the star wheel turning was in fact moving the shoes out. I could physically see it. I went and checked the cables too. I noticed that the squared "nut" on the cable yoke with the slight metal "tang" was not vertical. So, I turned that nut about 3/4 of a way to make it vertical. This is the piece where the one cable splits off into 2, with the spring, et cet. Hope that makes sense. I know the FSM says to not adjust this, but I did but not a lot. I just wanted to get that metal strip or tang on the 10mm nut in the vertical position per the FSM.

FSM or not, if properly adjusting the shoes doesn't do the trick, taking some slack out of the cable is the next logical step.

For sure, the cable should not be the primary means of parking brake adjustment.

Did you tighten the shoes up against the drum with the star wheel and then back them off just a bit?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Have you visually checked for movement of the cable when the parking brake is operated?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

To some degree. I can tell that when I push in the emergency brake pedal inside the cabin, the cables get tight. I also cannot turn the drum by hand either ,but I am not super strong either. Just that I cannot believe that turning that star wheel a bunch and nada ... I used to have older cars that had this style and it was not a big choir to fix. However, I cannot believe I took 2 cracks at it and nothing.

Is there a lip inside the drums giving you false hope?

It should adjust just like every other drum/shoe configuration ever

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

You have probably already checked these, but here are two thoughts. Have you adjusted both sides? With the Y cable, adjusting only one side may not allow full tightening of the cable. Second, if the shoes/drums are too worn or glazed there may not be enough adjustment available.

__________________
1975 240d/4 Speed "Old Blue"
1985 300d/4 Speed "DaWhite"
2000 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner

OK -- right now starving marvin, but I did use my lunch break to good use. I got the star wheels "unfrozen" again and they are opening up, thus pushing the shoes outward. I physically watched this and verified this on both side. I had to pop out the star wheel thing and blast them with PB Blaster to clean out the junk.

The passanger side has no more shoe left -- just metal and rust. The driver's side has some shoe left. I am going to crank them out some more after work to see if I got anything. I am actually afraid to remove the rear calipers again because the rubber brake lines are cracked and totally rotten looking. If I move them a bunch, I am afraid it will break and I dont want to replace those lines any time soon.

The backing plates are about 1/8th gone because of rust and rot. It might be easiler to just replace the entire rear trailing arms since the rot in the rear end is so bad, I doubt it will be a real fix to tackle this or that. I think I can remove the rear suspension trailing arms pretty fast and just pop in replacements instead of trying to fix bits and pieces. poop.

You'll need a 7mm allen key (hex head) to remove the block on which the parking brakes react so that you can remove the backing plate - after you've pulled out the entire hub...

...and gone through most of the bearing replacement DIY

PeachPartsWiki: Replacing the Rear Wheel Bearings

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/277341-w123-rear-wheel-bearing-removal-help-needed.html

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!