E- brake doesnt lock up the wheels........
 

I adjusted my e- brake.So it's very tight,goes up 4 clicks before completely tight.But when im driving 30 mph. and pull it , it will just slow down.Does anyone know why the rear wheels arent locking up?
Thanks.

It could be because of the ABS maybe? Mine doesn't lock either.

The e-brake is a direct mechanical link to the rear brakes, via a cable. There is no brake fluid involved in th e-brake operation, so the ABS can't pulse a cable. If your rear wheels aren't locking up theres some other issue.

How hard are you pulling it? The e-brake is supposed to be just that, an emergency brake. If the hydraulics fail it allows you to slow the car. So if pulled lightly, it will just slow the car. So try ripping it up with all your might, see what happens.

Generally it is hard to put more pressure on the rear disks by pulling up the brake handle (small muscles) than it would be to stomp on the pedal with your leg (largest muscles).

So unless you are really ripping the lever, and the car is already flying, or the road is slick, it should just slow the car.

And BTW, if you do try this at a higher speed, with more force, the car will more than likely go out of control - I know because I did it when I was a kid.

Make sure you are pushing your clutch in when you rip the handle. Unless you do, you have to pull strong enough to fight tire traction and the intertial force of your entire drivetrain- that's the rotating mass of everything from your axles and drive shaft to your flywheel, rotors, and excentric shaft....pulleys too. If you don't have your clutch pedal down, you shouldn't be able to lock up the rear wheels completely unless you can lock up all that hardware as well.

Sorry I didn't mention that, thought that was a given.

Hard stops like that will wear down your car quick.

mostly just your e-brake, and some tire wear.

The main reason I posted this is I will like to get into drifting, and I know that the easiest way to learn is to start w/ the e- brake slides.then power slides etc...
I will try to yank it harder and press the clutch in all the way.I guess I'm tring to be gentile on the FD.but nothing should break, just wear on the tires.
Thanks for the replies

The FD isn't the greatest beginner drift car. Its awesome to do it, but you risk a nice ride doing it. I know nobody on this forum wants to see another FD wrecked because someone was doing something they didn't need to be. Remember, these cars aren't in production anymore and it'll help everyone out if you're more careful with your part of the population.

Na dont worry I'm not planning on drifting in the streets of Manhattan, I rellize how frigile this car is and the last thing I want to do is wreak it.but I do want to learn in an open parking lot,maybe anyone interested could join together and rent out a parking lot so we could to it in a safe envoirment.

You shouldn't need the e-brake to learn to drift. The cars have enough power that a little power oversteer is usually just a jab of the throttle away.

Just cut the wheel sharply while giving it some gas and the rear will happily step out. And please don't wreck your car. :)

Mine doesent lock either. Learn other methods, you dont need to use the ebrake at all.

ebrake is a method you definalty need to learn (especially when going down hill/touge, remember, down hill is all ebrake, uphill is all power), you cannot do some turns without it such as offcamber type or sharp uturn. goodluck trying to do 180/360's without it as well. in anycase, the secret to using ebrake for a fd is that you dont need to have the rears lock up. you just need a bit of lag/drag on them and they will kick out.
If you do want the rears to lock up, trail brake and then yank it. another option is to install a hydrolic e-brake system, have the lever go up near the steering wheel like rally drivers have it as you dont gotta move your arms that much.

Like someone said above, fd's suck as beginner drift cars, we cant turn nearly as much as modded fc wiht hte spindle mod or stock 240's. our cars also have too much power for beginner drifters as well as no revlimit, a weird power band, super shitty gearing for beginner drift and are very twitchy (it will usually try to straighten out super fast or spin out for beginners). our cars are also defined as fr lay out but in actuality, our cars perform more like midship cars as our engiens are before the front axle making it that much harder. Personnaly i love slidding my fd but remember if you do itin yours, you will crash (i have personnaly gone off road a couple of times and went in to a dirt embankment, idk how hte hell i did not break anything but lucky me). the wheels for our cars are also fken expensive! I would look in to a fc because if you crash a fc, who the fk would care, it cost you only 500-1k only hahaha and thats for the entire car, not just for your hood or fender or front bumper or suspension or ect...

Note: all the stuff i mentioned above is all being bad for beginner drifters, as you advance, 2nd gear is pretty much all you need and you can really do amazing stuff with your fd in a controlled enviorment after you learn the basics and crash your first car a few times.

I dont know a single guy which has gotten good at sliding wiht out crashing their first cars a few times!

BTW: Get a spin turn knob as it will help out a lot as you dont gotta worry about the ebrake sticking up.

as far as learning, try to hit you apex, dont be like the other mainland guys which only concentrate on speed and swing wayyyyy out, the hawaii guys I know can pass all the mainland guys on the inside of a turn haha:) its fricken embarassing!

also remember youll go thru tires very fast, you better have a huge bank account or have hook ups like me and get tires/mounting for free!

P.S. dont be a bitch and cry and bitch about your car being totalled if it does get hurt, take responisibility and just accept before you start sliding, you will crash.

You forgot/missed one very important thing; you use the hand brake while in or going into a turn. Not going straight. This is used to unsettle the car balance.

A suspension set up for drifting is not good for street use and vice versa. You want more oversteer for drifting but not for street.

negative, you can use ebrake to start a long slide or to start doing choku's down a straight away.
you can also use handbrake to fine tune your turns

as far as suspension is concerned, im not sure what you mean by street. if you mean like regular driving where it will wear your tires faster due to pos/neg camber, it does not really make a difference to me as i switch my tires out every other week, some times sooner :)

Why don't you just buy an old Corolla?

Thanks for the info, I bought the dvd the drift bible,and watched it yesterday.It was amazing what Keiichi (drift king) was doing.I know that it takes years of pratice to master the art. I just think that it is really great to take a car doing 80 and slide around a turn.He metioned that it also kills your L.S.D. You need an overhaul like every 9 months if you do it once a week.
I'm going to try to hold back and do it in parking lots with no poles in site or anything for that matter.And hope the cops dont bust my balls to bad.When I know im 100% confedent I'll start elsewhere.
I was so blown away when I saw Drifter X and XL and Englishtown last year do it,and it was in the rain.I haighly recommend to go watch a drift event. INSANTY!!!

those old corollas are very expesnive as every fricken riceboy is selling their civics and other hondas for them driving the prices up, even 240's are like 2-3X their price!

I didn't read all of the above posts, so this issuer could have already been covered. Anyway I beleive the e-brake cables in some cars are prone to stretching. It doesn't really sound like you have a streched cable but I'm sure going really fast and "ripping it with all your might" can't be too healthy for your e-brake and its cable.

The reason the rear wheels will not lock up is probably due to several factors:
1. Brake shoes - If they are cheap or worn, the amount of friction applied to the rotor will be reduced, thus causing the brakes not to grab with enough force to stop the wheel.
2. Brake Rotor - A polished smooth rotor face will allow more slippage of the wheel versus the fresh cut or slotted/drilled type rotor face. How old are the rear brakes? When were they last changed? Organic or semimetallic pads?
3. Tire quality - A higher grip tire will be less likely to slide versus a cheaper low grip tire. If the grip strength is high, it may not allow the wheel to lock up.

Remember for the wheel to stop, the brake friction must exceed the rolling inertia of the wheels. If not, the car will just slow down until this point happens.

Another thing would be misalignment not allowing the full pad to press against the rotor properly, but highly unlikely.

Tim

just put your car in reverse, that'll lock something up :)