Well, the thread title should be pretty self explanatory, but...

I had engaged the parking brake on my 96 Bonneville SE while I had it in the garage to change a tire. After I was done, I disengaged the parking brake and put the car in reverse, but the parking brake hadn't ACTUALLY disengaged. I reset the parking brake, pressing the floor pedal down, and this time if went down farther than normal, and is now stuck to the floor. Pulling up on the pedal does nothing, and it won't press down further. The parking brake itself is still engage (rear wheels won't turn), and the cable is taught.

Is there an easy way to get the parking brake pedal to come back up? I've contorted myself to look at the mechanism in there, but am really not sure what I'm looking at. There appears to be, right above the pedal, two different crescent shaped pieces of metal that sit on top of each, but I haven't been confident enough in my abilities to know what to do with them.

Any help would be awesome, I really want to be able to drive again, heh.

You might be able to relieve the pressure by undoing the slack adjuster on the cable at the rear of the vehicle. This would at least take the tension off the parking brake "handle" so you can disengage it.

I have seen cables get hung up before because of icing up or corrosion, but the foot pedal should at least come back up with assistance when you release it.

Mike,

Thank you for your reply and advice. Where about would I find the slack adjuster? I'm searching on google and youtube, but everything I'm finding about slack adjusters seems related to air brakes for large commercial vehicles. Is this somewhere where the cable splits off to the left and right, or inside the drum? I've never had to mess with the parking brake on any of my vehicles before, so I want to be sure I'm doing this right before I get started. I've also tried searching the forums here and haven't found much. If you could give me a little more detailed instruction, I'd be eternally grateful. As it is I'm about ready to just cut the cable, but would prefer not to.

If you refer to item #1, you might be able to loosen the nuts here. This sits right behind the fuel tank.

Or, you could access #11 just underneath the carpet on the drivers side next to door.




Actually, its called the parking brake cable equalizer adjuster.

Ok, that'* amazing, I've spent DAYS looking for a diagram like that. Thank you! That helps a TON!!! I'll update later what ends up happening (if it stops raining long enough to get to it today)

Well, I got the pedal to come up and the break to disengage. After messing around with trying to get that damn nut moving all morning (rust, yay) I finally just cut the son of a gun cable and everything let go. At this point it'* going to be easier to just do a new one than mess with all the rust and whatnot in the old. Hehe. Thanks for your help though Mike, I appreciate it. Oh, also. The numbers 12 and 11 on that diagram are actually on the outside of the car, underneath the driver'* side door on my car, just if anybody from the future comes through here looking for information. In theory, if you can get that adjuster to move (between the rust and just spinning the cable, I really couldn't), that pedal should come back up no problem.

What was I thinking???!! My bad. I could have sworn it was inside.

Hope you get it fixed soon, some states require your parking brake to "work".

Heh, for now I'll risk it, though ever since I cut the cable the driver'* side rear wheel brake isn't grabbing... so now I gotta look at that. And also I developed an oil leak while my car was sitting there for a couple days, apparently. Also replacing stablizer bar links tonight, as I'm missing one. So... yeah, as long as I get SOMETHING fixed, and nothing more goes wrong, lol.

An old plumbers nightmare...touch one pipe, the other starts leaking.

omg.... hate... rust... can't... get.... other.... link.... off.... lol ... found out that one was broke too, missing the bottom, but the sleeve and washer above it are rusted on so good. I will prevail! My car will learn to fear me! hehehe