Greetings,

I recently had all the breaks on our family Malibu replaced complete with rebuilt calibers and new rotors. The emergency break worked even with the pads near metal to metal but the ratchet was stripping. I had assumed replacing the breaks would help with this ratcheting problem but it did not help.

The mechanic then replaced the complete emergency break cable/pedal assembly with parts new from GM. Now I can hear the ratchet working fine but the e-break doesn't work at all. My mechanic seems lost as to why and says the new GM assembly is self-adjusting and doesn't have any external adjustment mechanism.

So, the old cable with a bad ratchet and used up breaks worked but the new one doesn't. Any ideas on what to do next?

Thank you for any consideration on this one.

Jack up the rear end....rear tires should spin easily.....now grab the cable as it enters the rear backing plate and pull, and try to rotate the tire.....does the wheel turn? Try other side?

If the wheel doesn't turn, now pull on the lever....does either wheel turn?

Is this the drum style rotor where the ebrake shoe is on the inside of the rotor? If it is, this had to be adjusted before the new rotor is installed, there is no adjustment afterwards...

Thank you for the quick reply and My apologies on the late response as I had trouble getting ahold of the mechanic. He indicates that this 06 disk brake car does not have a drum style rotor. It has a ratcheting style lever with a small piston on top of the caliper and the cable ends are clipped at both ends and lacks any adjustment that we know of. Since the cable ends are fixed with minimal slack pulling on them has no effect.

Any other ideas?

Thank you again for the response!

Cheers