Well, I thought the parking brake didn't need to work to pass inspection, as long as it held in park. I was wrong. So I jacked it up, took off the wheel, took off the drum and looked inside. I had a helper push the brake pedal to see the effect, then pull the parking brake handle, to see it's effect. Brake works as it's supposed to - expands the shoes. Parking brake pulls some kind of lever arm (so I am getting back there), but it is not expanding the shoes.

All I could think of is that there is a spring on that lever arm. It might be ... unspringy ? ... no idea. Any suggestions? Just trying to pass inspection Thanks guys

 

A good parking brake is a brick, just put the car in gear and put the brick behinde the tire

 

If your parking brake mechanism is similar to mine (67 coupe)...there is an adjustment nut/bolt on the cable under the vehicle. Tighten it and it adjusts the tension on the cable to the back brake control arm. Be sure the parking brake is not pulled out when doing the adjustment. Don't expect the parking brake to do much good holding the car in place on an incline. They never were really made well enough to do a proper job. Hope this makes sense..

 

Take a look and make sure everything is there and is installed correctly. The parking brake cable pulls a lever (located behind the rear shoe) that pushes a bar (parking brake link) that engages the front shoe against the drum.

 

Check the tension mechanism under the belly of the car near the transmission. You can tighten it there too.

 

mine would'nt even hold on flat ground, so we adjusted it under the car and at cleaned and checked the rear brakes, it holds on a incline now.. the handle only pulls out about 2 inches but it works good..