Curious. Was practicing a little defensive driving early this a.m. on a
empty wide section of road in a rural valley (read: It really was 6+ lanes,
no median, no traffic, clear/safe and I'm getting new tires Friday - so
don't give me any driving safety lectures please). Couldn't seem to get the
rear wheels on my 1993 Legacy to lock. Do they? Can I? How?
Thanks. Brian

"Brian & Cate" <Lambfam (AT) miNOdScPoaAstM (DOT) com> wrote

Hand brakes do not use hydrolic pressure, but rather a cable (like on a
bicycle). Thus, they bypass any "anti-lock" or power brake technology.

They are also quite weak, I would not be suprised if the AWD type vehicles
prevent the classic "hand break to lock and spin" type manouver from being
possible because they simply apply more power to the rear to overpower the
brake.

[Think about it, if they were strong enough, you wouldnt be able to drive
away with them on... which you can do too.]

"Brian & Cate" <Lambfam (AT) miNOdScPoaAstM (DOT) com> wrote
The brake cable probably just needs tightening.

Contrary to the other answer to you question, you should be able to lock the
rears with the parking brake. I have never had a vehicle where I could drive
with the parking brake on. That includes by Outback Sport and my 245hp Dodge
truck.

"Brian & Cate" <Lambfam (AT) miNOdScPoaAstM (DOT) com> a écrit dans le message de
news:wkRTa.95$Sj1.55974 (AT) monger (DOT) newsread.com...

If your car is AWD, I'm not sure that is a good idea to lock rear wheel.

The parking brake on the 90-94 Legacys is a drum style brake built inside of
the
rear rotors.
Good design, hard to find the drum linings though, so I would recommend
using them only for emergencies or parking.
I don't think you could lock them up on a manual tranny car, maybe on an
auto where the torque split is different.

Eric.


"Bill Putney" <peva (AT) kinez (DOT) net> wrote

"Bill Putney" <peva (AT) kinez (DOT) net> wrote

I'm pretty sure they only used those style on the older boxy rust-bucket
subies. I think they went to rear parking brakes with all US market Legacy,
Impreza, Forester.....

and for the original poster, it's a PARKING brake, not an emergency brake.
It's only designed to hold the vehicle from rolling when parked. It's _NOT_
designed to slow/stop the vehicle, or lock the wheels for you to play and do
slide turns........(as much fun as that may be.....)

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 18:45:26 GMT, "someone" <someone (AT) home (DOT) org> wrote in
news:aPVTa.69597$kI5.22810 (AT) nwrddc02 (DOT) gnilink.net:

It certainly is an emergency brake. Since (at least in the cars I've
owned) it uses a completely different mechanism from the main brake
lines, it will function (maybe not very well) when the the main system
has malfunctioned. I used it once in my Acura when the moron mechanic
didn't bleed the system. First red light (100m from the dealer) and
the pedal went to the floor. Thankfully the parking/emergency brake
was there. I'm sure their lawyers were thankful as well.

"Dave Null Sr." <lrowoy (AT) ShNotmail (DOT) com> wrote

No, it certainly IS NOT an emergency brake, even if you've used it for such
purpose. Read your owner's or any other manual, and I highly doubt you'll
find anything suggesting that you use it as such. You will, however, find
that they instruct you to use it when PARKING the vehicle.

someone <someone (AT) home (DOT) org> wrote:
They used to call it an emergency brake, and people didn't use
it for parking and "parked" cars rolled around a lot.

They started calling it a parking brake, which kept the cars
from rolling around on their own but left a whole generation of drivers
clueless about how to stop when their brakes failed.

It's a HAND BRAKE and can be used to stop the vehicle if
the brakes fail (IE, an emergency) or to keep the vehicle
from rolling around when parked.

IE, it's both a furniture polish AND a dessert topping.

-DanD

--
# Dan Duncan (kd4igw) dand (AT) pcisys (DOT) net http://pcisys.net/~dand
# If you want to know more about paranoid people, follow them around.

Dan Duncan wrote:

Regardless of what it's called, I know I'm going
to give it a pull if the service brakes don't work.

It's also where my hand rests when I'm riding
shotgun with my student driver daughter.