Mid-Illini Jeepers

In the last couple of days I've rebuilt the rear brakes on my '05 Rubicon, including the parking brake. I installed pads and rotors, and shoes with a new hardware kit for the "P" brake. Upon completion the "P" brake wouldn't work, all parts were in the correct location. After staring at it for an hour I googled the problem. It seems that the pivot points on both sides were frozen up/rusted.

The first step in the fix is removing the cable from the actuating arm that comes through the backing plate. The next step is removing the top spring that holds the shoes together. The shoes must be pulled apart for room to remove the parts. The 2 piece actuating arm must then be pried apart, after a good soaking with Kroil. Once the 2 pieces were apart, without removing the axle the pieces must be separated behind the axle flange to remove them. The 2 parts hve to be removed by pulling them thru the backing plate from the axle flange side. A wire wheel was used to clean the parts up. I applied White lithium grease to The parts before reassembly. In fact, A small packet of white lithium comes in the hardware package.

Here's a picture of the parts after cleaning.

I believe this is a typical problem on vehicles that never get the parking brake applied in normal everyday use.

Yep, I think I used it twice in 25k miles. The bummer is that I wouldn't have had to take it apart twice if I'd known how it was supposed to work.

I have ran into that before and it is fairly common. Not the best design. It'd be better made out of stainless.