I put new shoes on my rear brakes(97 civic) and now I have virtually no e-brake. I've done this before on a 91 civic and had no problems with the brake setting itself afterward and fairly quickly. I've driven my car around for 2 days and there has been no change in the e-brake. Just thought I'd see if there's something different that takes longer on a 97 for the brake to set before I decide to pull the wheels off and check the springs and whatnot.

 

Did you clean and lubricate the star adjuster mechanism (clevises) so that they spin freely?

 

I wiped them off, but I did not put any grease on them. I'll have to look at them I guess.

 

You should pre-set the self adjuster so the shoes will almost touch the drum, before putting the drum on. Note that the self adjusters are different for the two sides of the car (one is right hand thread and one left hand) so they must not be interchanged. After putting the car back together make sure the brake pedal is firm and then test drive. During the test drive make several stops (using the brake pedal) while moving backwards.

Of course if the hand brake didn't work before you replaced the shoes, something else could be wrong. The hand brake is adjustable, using the adjuster nut inside the car under the handle.

 

The brake was working fine before I changed the shoes. I haven't had a chance to pull the wheels off yet. I'm gonna lube the clevis' and try to set them better. Thanks.

 

so is it the rear brakes not working OR is it the Ebrake just not working?

if the Ebrakes just not working then just pull the drums off and make sure you hooked up the Ebrake cable back to the pad! if not of course ya wont have any Ebrake and check both sides!

if you just missed one cable that will put abunch of slack on the line so the good one thats hooked up still wont get enough pressure to hold... the Ebrake mechanism kinda works like a teatertaughter, its ment like that to have equal pressure on both pads.
so with the drums off the car have someone pull the Ebrake handle and look for the shoes/cable to move inside....
if one doesnt move it could be broken and you gotta replace the whole cable on that one side.

just pull the center console cover off and pull the Ebrake cables with some pliers will also work.... if it comes out its busted, or if its just really firm it could be stuck, and its just easier to replace the whole cable rather than try and lube the cable up. i tried lubing up the cable before on my old 84 crx but it was just alot of wasted time! so i replaced it and never looked back with it

 

I know they're hooked up to the shoes. That's a memorable step as it can be a pain. Everything was fine with the E brake cable before I put the new shoes on, so I'm quite certain it's okay. I'm pretty sure it's the self adjusters. I'll find out this weekend!

 

ya but if your selfadjusters need adjusting then that means you dont have much if any breaks in the rear and your pedal goes to the floor easily!

 

Okay, the self adjuster was in a bind on the drivers side and therefore not operating properly. The passenger side was adjusting, but apparently both sides need to be working right for the e-brake to work. It's all good now!