ill pm you my number if you get stuck on anything

 

I hope this goes smoothly
if not it would be good to be able to call
thanks
Bob

 

I attempted to remove the old Parking Brake Motor this weekend.
After jacking up the rear end and resting the frame on the jack stands I crawled under the car so I could see what is going on. That motor is mounted to the frame right above the pumpkin. Phd12volt is right, I think the differential needs to be lowered to give enough room to get that out and back in not to mention unplugging the connectors and attaching the cables. I was feeling very uncomfortable about loosening and lowering the pumpkin while on my back with 4000 pounds of metal suspended on jackstands inches from my face...I just lost my nerve thinking about tugging on the 18mm bolts down there and called my favorite local mechanic and made an appointment for Wednesday. I'll hold my nose and throw some more franklins at the beast.

 

The EPB is working again!
Just picked up the STR from the mechanic, ($200 labor) I'm glad he did the repair as he did need to drop the rear differential to get at the motor, he also needed to slacken the cable to one of the brake calipers to get enough play to re attach the new motor cable. The new motor is so quiet you can hardly hear it. I took the old motor apart, the fibre gears in the gearbox are stripped and the entire assembly is extremely difficult to turn. Even though the gear box is assembled with what look to be outdoor rubber gaskets, there was, perhaps, 1/4 of a shot glass of road cinders in the gear box. I think the PB motor assembly is robust, but for the sake of a poor quality, or poorly fitted 10 cent rubber gasket(s) on the gear box, the entire assembly is compromised and it's life is shortened. If you have noticeable noise from the EPB, you could remove it, clean out the gearbox and regrease, or just wait for it to fail (hopefully in the OFF mode) and replace the entire assembly for something north of 400 bucks like I did.

 

well while i was outta town, i had it taken up to the dealer and they wanted 1600 to do the EPB........no seriously they did. thats why i did it myself.

i know what you are saying though, i had 2 jack stands, 2 hydraulic jacks, and a third jack for the pumpkin. I wasnt taking any chances while i was under there. LOL


I did inspect all my cables while under there, and surprisingly enough they wee in excellent shape.

 

$1600!!!! Forthe EPB replacement,WOW. I don't know how they could justify that, even list price for the part leaves over $1300 for labor, no wonder you did this yourself.
I know you took your old moror assembly and gearbox apart and posted pictures of the gears. I'm thinking the rubber gaskets on the gear box were the cause of the problem, did you find a bunch of road grit inside the box too?

 

oh yeah, and the best thing i didnt find, was any grease residue. weird

 

Yep...Zero grease in the PBM gear box. I'm thinking the PBM and gearbox is subjected to twice the use as the engine starter since it is actuated when you start and then turn off the car (unless you use your second right hand to hold the E Brake Pad down while you remove the key) If there was a way to keep the grease in and the cinders out, I think it would last much longer.
You must feel great saving $1300 in dealer labor for a two hour repair.

 

Does the e brake have a separate battery? Where is it?

 

No it doesn't.

Now that's out the way we do have a separate section for new members intros, you will be very welcome.