I have a problem with the way my e-brake works. They don't lock my rear tires like I think they're supposed to. Say i'm going about 40-50mph and yank on my e-brake the car will slow down but the wheels won't lock up like they do in other cars. I've asked some people but they say that its not supposed to lock, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I've got new brakes all around and I've even tried adjusting the e-brake by turning the screw on the handle but that hasn't helped. Oh yeah the only way I can get the rear wheels to lock is if I shift the weight of the car to the front by putting my foot on the brakes first before I pull the e-brake handle.

 

Mine don't lock up either. The e-brake is pretty whimpy.

 

Ditto. Mine was adjusted by Mazda recently too...For FREE .

~T.J.

 

I don't believe they lock either. None of my previous 7 RX7's did.

I am not sure about this, but I remember a Mazda tech back in the day tell me another way to fine adjust them.

Go in reverse, and then yank the e-brake. Supposedly it self-adjusts that way.

I don't know if it works or not, just passing on some probably useless information.

 

not on 79's. slef adjusting drums weren't around at that time. you should be able to back up quickly and put on the brakes hard. thus self addjusting. no need to use the handbrake. problem is most people back up so slowly that sometimes they won't trigger the adjustment mechanism.

 

yeah, you don't actually need to pull the handbrake while backing up to cause self-adjusting, but then the adjusting is for generall brakes not the ebrake.

Keep in mind that this adjusts pad slack only. Self adjusting is designed to compensate for wearing of brakepads, not for loosening of ebrake cables.

anywho, remember that the handbrake engages rear wheels only. Front wheels have far stronger brakes than rear wheels on cars. You're asking the smaller set of brakes to overcome all the rolling momentum of your car's motion and stop the rear wheels (locking them up - which would cause flat spots if the car continues in motion)

 

And if you try 45mph handbrake turns a couple times (what are doing, rallying?), the e-brake will simply die a quiet death and just be a useless handle.

 

am i the only one who uses the handbrake to turn? the fc can almost get a 360 in the wet. nothing beat the handbrake in my wrx though. you could look at it and spin the car.

 

the car is a rear wheel drive, to me the idea of my e-brake locking up spelles disaster. none of my rexes have ever locked the rears up, and I really dont think it is supposed to.

 

I figured that the rear wheels are supposed to lock up because they do in all of the other cars I've driven. Oh and also this has nothing to do with the e-brakes but what king of LSD does the GSL come with? Its just something that I would like to know for reference.

 

er... if you're yanking the e-brake without stepping on the clutch, you expect that wimpy little cable to overcome all your engine torque and stop the rear wheels???

 

Oh yeah, of course I press the clutch pedal when I pull the e-brake. Its just that I'm used having the rear wheels lock when I do that, but if mazda made the rear brakes on the rx-7 so they don't lock I guess I can live with that.

 

Yes!





(i'm kidding of course)

-Error402

 

Yeah you could try adjusting the e-brake cable at the rear and making sure it's tight, but it only brakes enough to keep it from sliding down the driveway from my experience (although I haven't recently pulled it at 50mph)

As far as I know there weren't stock limited slip differentials until Gen 2. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

F-