2008 GS parking brake will not click or engage, even tho the cable is moving. Not locked on, I can roll it by hand - any ideas?

[msgoodwrench]

2008 GS parking brake will not click or engage, even tho the cable is moving. It's not locked on, I can roll it by hand. I had this bike parked in my garage, just rode it a few weeks back in a warm spell, parked it, and set the brake. I was working in the garage today and I needed the space; so I took the brake off, only remember hearing one click, and rolled it back outside. I did not set the brake because it was not going to move. This evening I rolled it back into the garage, went to set the brake, and even tho the cable is moving and pulling the lever back at the brake, it is not clicking or engaging the brake. I appreciate any help with figuring this out. Thank you!

 

[BajaRon]

How far is the pedal going down? If the adjuster is moved too far, the pedal can't move down far enough to engage the ratchet. Same goes for being too loose. The pedal goes beyond the ratchet with not enough tension to engage the pads. Though this is not your issue.

 

[msgoodwrench]

The pedal travels all the way down with no clicks. Thank you Ron, I went out and checked the clearance to the 'back post' and it is very wide, so maybe it did stretch that much! I am going to try and adjust that a bit and see if that is the problem; thank you so much. Had to use a mirror to watch the brake linkages move while stepping on the pedal. Will post after adjustment.

 

[msgoodwrench]

Okay, here is what I have found; the brake is adjusted close enough that I could not get a ratchet from the adjuster wheel. Put it back together and the brake set fine, 4 clicks and it set. Unset it, tried to set it again, no dice; no clicks, no set. It appears that the cable is not being pulled back into proper position when unloaded; it comes to rest far away from the back stop, but if I manually pull the lever back, it comes into the proper position in front of the back stop and I can then set the brake again. So, maybe my cable is stodgy? Can I lube that, or do I need a new cable? Thank you!

 

[BajaRon]

I'm still not fully clear on what is going on. But I am getting the drift that it's not your cable or adjustment. It's probably the mechanism that does the latching and unlatching. I've attached a part fisch below showing these parts. Part # 31 gets goobered up over time and stops moving as it should to engage with Part #17. Spray the shaft with PB Blaster or similar on both sides of Part #17 (you will see the spring, Part #37 on both sides of it) and actuate your parking brake several times and see what happens.

I think you will find this fixes the issue. These components are situated behind the lower panel. But you should be able to get to it from the back side.

 

[msgoodwrench]

Thank you, I will head out to do that. I've been studying parts diagrams of the brake assembly thinking I might need a new cable, and boy, they are not really available! I will certainly try your suggestion and report back.

 

[msgoodwrench]

Well, I think you are definitely on the right road: After lubing the shaft (around 17), I knew where to be looking. I watched as the cog went into the tooth, I watched the little spring there for the cog and it seems to be okay. I lubed up around there too. It seemed maybe to be working better, but still not resetting when the pedal came back up. I found if I pulled up on the lever just a bit, it would kick over and reset, so I worked it some more, lubed around the pivot of the brake lever (28) and around the main shaft of the lever (24). It is much better, especially if I let the brake lever 'snap' back up. I will be watching it, if nothing else I can toe up on the lever to reset it, but if it persists I think I will pull that lever off and clean and lube well on that main shaft (24). The lube will continue to work in for now and it may get better. I thank you so much for your ideas!! Back to ridin...

 

[BajaRon]

If it's crudded up really bad you may need to spray it liberally with some carb cleaner to get it cleaned up, then try the lube again.

Good luck!

 

[msgoodwrench]

yes, thank you so much, appreciated.