No parking brake, adjust star wheels?

[omnitonic]

The official JL procedure for the parking brake seems to be to tighten the cables via the access inside the console. I'm at the upper limit of travel on that adjustment, and my parking brake just barely holds.

In my research, I've discovered that these parking brakes use the same hardware as the JK. There are tons of "how to adjust your star wheels" tutorials aimed at the JK, but nobody ever talks about star wheels and the JL, except when trying to loosen the parking brake shoes in order to get the rotor off.

I'm wondering if I should just try pulling my calipers, pulling the boot, and attempting to adjust my star wheels tighter. I also suspect there's a good chance they're seized anyway, and all the hardware inside the drum is probably a rusty mess. Maybe, maybe not. I've seen a lot of Jeeps that were in far, far worse shape, as far as the parts I have actually accessed. Nothing is especially corroded yet, and I haven't driven through much salt or thick mud. I have driven through a large number of deep mud puddles though, and I have done a lot of stream crossings. There has to be a reason my parking brakes are just shot to hell. Maybe I get lucky and all the hardware is still pristine, and it's just the friction material has come unglued.

Who knows.

Also, I can appreciate that pulling the axle would make this job dramatically less of a hassle. I've never actually pulled an axle on anything that wasn't a full float, and I have no concept of how involved that would be. I guess there are clips inside the pumpkin? I need to change the diff fluid anyway. It's about time. Is it worth pulling the axles, or would I be better off leaving well enough alone?

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[NJJeep Guy]

It would be worth the effort to pull the drums and inspect the actual system. If it's not moving much then adjustment at the handle won't matter

 

[Starboard M]

No need to pull the axle shaft to look at the rear brakes. (FYI, the rear axle is a non C clip, so you dont need to open the cover unless you want to)

Support the axle, take the tire and wheel off. There is a small torx bolt holding the rotor onto the axle flange, remove that and the caliper. 5-10ish minutes. Make sure the ebrake is off so you can pull the rotor!

I took these while I was upgrading to Yukon alloy shafts, so not related to ebrakes, but......
You can see the small torx in the 4 o'clock positon.

Again, I am replacing my shafts with aftermarket ones, but you can see the ebrake here as well as the inside of the rotor. Here I am using the rotor as a slide hammer to get the axle shaft out.

Its a pretty standard rear brake setup these days, with the ebrake hitting the inside of the rotor hat.


Cant help much on what could be wrong as my ebrake engages pretty strong with what I would guess is plenty of throw left. Might be worth a shot to pull the ebrake and then jack one side up at a time and try to rotate each rear tire to see if one is worse than the other.


Final thought, if you are anything like my father who uses the ebrake ALL the time, he uses his entire strength to set the brake. In a flat parking lot, youre not going to roll away! I think he is gradually stretching the ebrake cables, but this is over many years on older vehicles so I doubt you would do the same on a (relatively) new Wangler.

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