1997-2005 Parking Brake

For that you can buy GM Performance drilled and slotted rotors with GM durastop pads (ceramic) (off of ebay--there is a Chevy dealer from Texas who sells them) then go to the local dealer to buy a set of pads for the parking brake. I didn't look real good at them when I replaced mine, but the rear rotor is ALSO the parking brakle rotor. (Kind of like drum brakes in a way). Anyway- I bought mine for $350 delivered you'll probably pay another $50 for the parking brake pads and whatever it costs to install all of this stuff, unlesss you can do it yourself. It's a 2 hour job in your garage if you do it. By the way- I used to wash my car every 2-3 days mainly because the wheels would get dirty from the dust, now I can go almost 2 weeks. They stop better too.

-Stan

First off there are no emergency brake pads, they are shoes and one piece each side. They work off their own slave actuator to press out on a drum as sbright said, not a disk. They are adjustable by simply pulling up on the brake lever which ratchets the brake actuator until the proper braking is acquired by repeating this action. This has nothing to do with a 2005, just the 1997 through 2004. Yes, the manual covers the correct method for replacement and adjustment for the C5. My 2005 manual is not here yet so any thing for it would be a guess. Since the 2005 is so near like the C5 my guess is that it is nearly the same. Repair kit for 97-98 12530696, 99-?

Right. I assumed (I know..) that to qualify for being called drum brakes with shoes, the system would have to have two opposing shoes squeezing out against a drum.. This uses one.. like I said though I didn't look real hard. By the way-- they did come with steel springs to install the pads.

-Stan

Actually uses two shoes, mounted on one "C" shaped retainer so both shoes push out against the drum. In the 1998 service manual Volume 2, Item 2. of the Park Brake Shoe Adjustment, in section 5-68 it says, "Tools required, J21177-A, Drum to brake shoe clearance gage to check if the inner diameter is within specifications." You might want to tell GM what you know, they missed it. I have an extra service manual for sale if you need to know anything else.

Since you probably know, I'll ask in this thread.. if I were to replace my stainless braided brake lines with regular stock (I have the ABS light on and there is a TSB on this) will I need to bleed the ABS or can I get away with bleeding the brakes regular? (Per the C5 requirements)

You're right, the answer is in the manual I have for sale, section 5-31 on when and how to bleed the brakes. Strange you should ask about stainless hoses, that TSB is well over a year old. Sorry to see that you had to suffer with them that long or if you just put them on and found out the hard way. Learned that from a racer (?) back in 2001.

I guess it wasn't really suffering when the TCS doesn't kick in at the most inopportune time... The TSB didn't state if there were any codes thrown from these SS lines. It would be nice to know before I go and replace them. I was thinking of a ground wire to all four lines to see if that would solve the problem. I might be doing that before I replace the lines back to stock. I bought the car used and the guy I bought it from claimed it was the steering wheel position sensor causing this. He felt it got hit when the headers went in.

The only informative statement made on the subject was that the stainless steel lines "confused the wheel speed sensors". My thoughts are that it's because they already are a ground wire, and it should have become general knowledge if that worked by this time. Having worked on the development of high pressure Teflon hoses for paint transfer those that were for brake lines were not an option. That material has little memory, hence the required braid to support it. Now if you look at the crimp it is severe to get a hold of the slippery stuff. In other words it is compressed to the point of yield when it is new. All of the paint hoses were supported at the crimp with outside spring coils to restrict movement of the inter Teflon liner so it wouldn't fail from movement and contaminate the paint. Replacement was frequent and most went to stainless pipe to eliminate hoses where possible, the hydraulic shock from normal use would break the Teflon liner. That type of shock is not present in the braking system but the flexing is there. They work but they wouldn't be on my car, the nano second they might save is not worth it.

I just bumped into this auction on ebay has a nice pic of what the part looks like. Not to mention a good deal if you need parking brake shoes:

-Stan

Looks just like the pictures in the manual shows them.

Maybe but in color plus you don't need to get up from the computer to dig the manual out.

:-)

-Stan

Nether do I, it's in a CD that shows it very well, you should have one.