Another parking brake question....98XJ

So I have read lots of ebrake posts here but I am still confused about my particular problem.

My XJ parking brake goes up about 8 clicks.
Parking on a "slight hill" in my driveway, it will not hold. I stop the jeep, put in neutral (its an auto tranny) running or not, pull parking brake on and jeep rolls.

So, I thought I should adjust the brakes. I placed two rocks in front of front tires (jeep facing downhill) to block from rolling, jacked up rear of jeep (both tires off ground) and pulled ebrake handle all the way up. When I went to the rear and tried to move tires, they wont turn at all. So I am thinking hmm, ebrake is holding them so why does it roll? Or, am I kidding myself because the weight of the vehicle moving the wheels is a whole different story than me turning them by hand?

new1998 said:

Or, am I kidding myself because the weight of the vehicle moving the wheels is a whole different story than me turning them by hand?

Click to expand...

You are kidding yourself - its completely different.

To tighten the ebrake - look under the XJ on the drivers side between the drivers door and the passenger door. There is a long threaded rod and it attaches to the cables that go to each rear wheel. Tighten the adjuster on the threaded rod until the ebrake gets hard to pull at 5 clicks or so.

Then release the ebrake and lift the rear end, try to spin the tires by hand. Make sure you can spin the wheels and that the pads are not dragging.

Thanks the weirdo! That took all of five minutes following your detailed instructions! Great ebrake now.

Actually, the first thing to do is properly adjust the rear brakes.

Depending on when the rear brakes were last serviced (and the quality of that service), you may have to remove the wheels, pull the drums, clean and use anti-seize on the rear adjusters BEFORE adjusting the rear brakes.

AFTER the rear brakes are adjusted properly, which is done WITHOUT the parking brake applied, THEN see if you need to adjust the parking brake itself as the_weirdo posted.

Good luck.

joe_peters said:

Actually, the first thing to do is properly adjust the rear brakes.

Depending on when the rear brakes were last serviced (and the quality of that service), you may have to remove the wheels, pull the drums, clean and use anti-seize on the rear adjusters BEFORE adjusting the rear brakes.

AFTER the rear brakes are adjusted properly, which is done WITHOUT the parking brake applied, THEN see if you need to adjust the parking brake itself as the_weirdo posted.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

X2. The backing plate should have an adjustment hole with a rubber grommet in it. You can use a brake spoon (proper tool) or a screwdriver to adjust the brakes.