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My rear passenger side tire has locked up. I used the emergency brake a few times in the previous weeks to do some fishtails and I think that might be part of the problem. I don't want to have to tow the car to get it fixed. Any suggestions?
In most cars the emergency brake also acts as the rear drum brake adjuster. Every time you apply your emergency brake fully it actuates a little rachet to adjust the brake shoes. Your fishtail exercise may have done this.
To release the brake shoes look on the back of the brake drum for a hole that is covered with a rubber cover. You have to remove that and adjust the shoes through that hole with a screw driver or a tool. Sometimes it may be on the fron of the drum.
Hopefully its a broken spring or brake shoe retainers are broken -jack up & support car remove tire and try to remove drum if stuck hard follow e brake cable forward toward adjuster and loosen the adjuster should give slack if still not moving will need skinny screwdriver and a thin one -at the rear bottom of brake backing plate is a slot about an 1 1/2 inch wide insert the skinny driver first and will be pushing the star adjuster lock forward and the other driver is to turn the star to loosen the brakes from the drum when all the way in try to remove drum once off review what damage to brakes are done fix and or replace as necessary auto stores sell repair kits with all springs and clips about 15 dollars**********now like i said hopefully if u remove the drum and brakes are fine u will have to check than if u broke one of the rear gears and froze the axle if the axle doesent move at all or makes grinding metal noise good chance rear gone good luck
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Timbo, Sounds like the right back brake hardware may be damaged or seizing. Take in for free inspection at some larger repair places. To show your appreciation press the helpful button and follow me on fixya for more tips and info.
Pull the brake drum off to see what's binding-brakes won't retract, emergency brake is stuck, a brake shoe return spring may be broken. Raise the rear and take both drums off to compare left and right side brakes and all the parts therein.
I to would suspect the emergency/parking brake. Many times because of non use of the EM brake system the cable seizes and when it comes time to change brake shoes they cause problems. There is a flat bar that is part of the self adjuster/parking brake system that might need to be removed to prevent this problem.
Mary-lou,are talking about brand new tires in 2 weeks.The back brakes aren't binding?Do you have the right air pressure in them,look on side of drivers door and it should have what the front and rear tires psi should be,are the tires balanced,they need to be.The emergency brake cable could be stuck.
You may have a collapsed rubber brake line at the rear axle holding pressure in the line . Have your brake lines ever been replaced? At this age it would be a good idea to do anyway to avoid any other issues .
If the brake light and alb lights are on u need to get it checked out, as this is a warning of a brake problem, and u could find yourself w/out brakes. 1st check the easy things, is tire pressure what it should be in the rear tires? Low pressure on one side would result in the tire running hotter than the other properly inflated side. Is the emergency brake completely off? If on even slightly, it can turn on the brake light. Is brake fluid at the proper level? If low, the brake light will go on. If it's low, u must check for leaks to see why it's low. The abs light on indicates a problem w/ the system, it could be as simple as a broken wire at the rear wheels. u may also have a brake dragging on the rear pass. side, causing the brakes to overheat, which could result in heat transfer to the wheel, and then the tire. This can be checked by jacking up the vehicle (~if u have a sturdy enough jack), and with front wheels blocked front and back, in neutral, engine off, turn wheels in back, see if resistance to turning is the same, or if brakes are dragging, u should be able to tell. Let me know how u make out.
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