e brake not working

[Kevin]

fwe weeks ago i pulled my 90 z out to do some work to the other cars and the e brake no longer ratchets/engages. No idea what the problem is, anyone have an idea?

[tomtom72]

Kevin,

You don't hear the ratcheting noise when you pull up on the hand lever? The lever moves but doesn't ratchet? The lever is stuck?

It could be the lock lever inside the ratchet assembly has broken, you got to r&r the seat so you can R&R the P/Brake assembly and then tear it down to see what broke, and or if anything is rusted frozen.

Did you look under to see if the cables are okay? What about the ends over at the rear calipers? Maybe remove the cable at the caliper lever and see if the lever is frozen or you can pull a bit on the cable end to see if it is frozen?

Bad news is I do think the cables, front and rear, are NLA from GM. Other bad news is if the mechanism in the rear calipers is n/g then you either buy new calipers or rebuild kits....I have kits but wasn't in the mood exactly as it looked a bit complicated.

:cheers:
Tom

[GOLDCYLON]

Tom is 100% correct as posted above but the cable is not ZR-1 specific so any C4 can donate a new cable. But the rear calipers or J55 rears can be found if the rear calipers are the issue

[ZR1Vette]

This might sound odd but it could be the OEM lubricant used on the e brake unit... over the time the 'grease' hardens and jams up the mechanism. I would take a look at that first and if is the case all you have to do is clean (parts cleaner) off the unit and then add new lubricant