Parking brake restoration
 

Parking brake hasn't worked since I bought the vehicle. Never cared much, but I was working on the main brakes and figured I may as well fix these too. Only thing not shown is the front cable floorpan routing plate and the lever/cam boots since the former seems epoxied in and the latter requires rear axle shaft removal to access, and I'm not dealing with that right now.

Stuff to the left of the central bracket was replaced, and is shown with the old stuff.
Dorman HW7002 included new springs, adjusters, and hold-down clips/pins for $14.62. Clips/pins are slightly different and you twist the pin to secure it, rather than slide. I like the new style a bit more.
Raybestos 701PG had the new shoes for $20.14

Everything else was restored. Removed massive amounts of rust with electrolysis, then followed up with a vinegar soak in an ultrasonic cleaner. Since the brake lever isn't reasonably disassembled, I just did the vinegar soak, and only on the bare metal section. Same for the cable ends since they are electrically connected to the cable interiors and I don't know if there'd be any negative interaction. The cable end support bracket (black piece in the middle) I just removed larger pieces of rust from and coated with Permatex 81849 Rust Treatment. I'm debating applying any other coating to it, besides just Fluid Film.

Problem with removing all this rust is that, since the original protection is long gone, the existing rust was the only thing slowing down more rust. I'm thinking Fluid Film on all the restored hardware, Anti-Seize on the threads of course (non-metallic marine grade), and Permatex 80653 Brake Lube on the new internal components and the levers/cams on the right near the hand lever.

Getting more nitpicky, maybe grease on the ratcheting mechanism and tensioner, and silicone/teflon lubricant inside the hand lever and the cable sleeves. May as well put some dielectric grease on the switch since it was starting to get somewhat oxidized.

Finally, 3M 03584 rubberized undercoating for all the undercarriage areas not sprayed yet because of the parking brake hardware being in the way.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...f0954e8e2a.jpg

Any thoughts for how to overthink this more?

I was dumb and didn't really take any before pictures, but here are the levers/cams:

1. After washing/scrubbing
2. After electrolysis
3. After vinegar bath in ultrasonic cleaner

I don't think the dark areas in the last photo are staining or corrosion; they are caused by the surface pitting from 23 years of rusting.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d5b245c52d.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...2ff6a1f644.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...f2fa420e7c.jpg

Changed my mind and took out the rear axle shafts to get to the splash shields and caliper adapters.

For the adapters, did the usual electrolytic rust removal. Put the pad sliding surfaces in the ultrasonic cleaner/vinegar soak to clean up enough to braze the grooves and then file down. Getting better at that, but still not perfect. I think I'm not getting them quite hot enough, and there are some small voids that show up when filing. Not too concerned about that though, especially since I plan on making some stainless caps for them.
It seemed like there was some old coating on these that made getting the rust completely off very difficult. Air compressor with a small nozzle was actually very effective for the problem areas.
The clamps are holding down the parking brake lever boots, which I'm sealing with some silicone caulk. No idea if that will work, but it's not a huge issue if it fails. The boots both had some holes that I tried to repair with rubber cement for tire repairs, somewhat successfully. Couldn't find any new replacements unfortunately.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b2bbb85406.jpg


The rear splash shields were very rusty, with some holes eaten through. Not quite as bad as the front ones were. Here's a pic after electrolysis, and then one after I coated it. Trying out 3M rubberized undercoating for these. I think it will work out well, especially since it should be more resistant to chipping than paint. Sanded down the shoe contact pads and will coat with brake lube.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...ce8b375b97.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...7db55bc80f.jpg

Great thread and probably my next project on my XJ this Summer. The rear brakes are in dire need of an overhaul.