hey i went in to get my brakes examined since ive been hearing noises and it turns out it was just dust i nthe front. As for the rear, they actually removed my wheel and go into the brakes and sprayed some kind of liquid on it and of course it was dusty. When I got home I couldn't pull the ebrake handle all the way up. Infact i have to use a lot of force to pull it up one or two clicks and thats about as much as it will go. I also jacked the rear up and tried to spin the wheels in the back and they would barely spin (even with the ebrake down)
is this normal?

 

Sounds like they adjusted your brakes a little too tight. You should be able to get about 3-4 clicks out of it.

 

just take off the console ontop of the ebrake and use a wrench or socket and back off the rear middle nut on the 2 cables. and keep testing it out pulling the handle up and down as well as trying to spin the wheels

odd how it just got firm after they inspected it..... they might have messed the brake pads up when they pulled the drums. usualy any old brake drums will have a lip on the outter ridge, if not ground off before replacing the drums they ycan break the edge off the pads...... ive done it before....
BUT if you paid them to inspect your brakes then take it back ASAP and make them look at it again or inspect the drum pads again or at least adjust the ebrake handle....

 

i called the mechanic and he said that 3 clicks is normal, and that the ebrake handle should not go up all the way making that crunching noise - is this true?

he also said that the rear wheels are not supposed to spin freely when jacked up/ebrake off. He said that the wheel should barely spin at all. Less than 180 degrees if spun hard enough. Is this true?
thanks

 

well IMO the wheels should not be hard to spin off the ground.... the rear wheels with anything more than a slight drag is to much......
its not needed.... if it is to them ask them WHY do they need to be tight? they dont care about your pads! the sooner they wear out the sooner you come back to have them replaced! ya might as well hold the brake pedal down and drive around town. thats just stupid! slight drag is fine if it rubs alittle bit it will wear alittle of the pad off quick enough, but if its realy hard to turn the wheel with it off the ground then not only will it wear your pads out really fast. it can also cause overheating the drum/rotors which can lead to warping or cracking the parts and thats definatly not good! then you have to replace everything!

that so called mechanic doesnt know jack!

 

so whats the best way to fix this?
untighten whatever he tightened?

 

Pretty much as described by addiction. This is for 96-98 Civics:

 

so is the parking brake supposed to go up all the way? or is 3 click is where I want it to be?

 

6-9 clicks (read diagram).

What year Civic?

 

BS
he just doesn't want to fix it

one more thing... if it wasn't supposed to go up that high, why would Honda put notches in the e-brake handle that let it click that high?
RonJ's right, 6-9 clicks