Just replaced my rear brakes on my 96 country and now the e-brake light is staying on. It feels as if the brakes are engaged too. Not fully but enough to feel it slowing the car when I release the accelerator. I adjusted the brakes so the the drum fit over them rather tight. Should i bring the pads together a little or what? Do i need to adjust the brake cable as well? I'm unsure. All of the other components are in and working fine.

 

Jack from the axle to get the rear wheels off the ground and spin the tires. They should turn freely. If they don't, first release tension on your parking brake and use a small flathead screwdriver to turn the adjuster through the inspection hole on the back side of the fixed plate until they turn freely. Make sure both drums are adjusted the same. Then adjust your ebrake until the brakes start to drag. Then back off one turn or until they stop dragging. Your parking brake should fully engage in seven clicks of the parking brake lever.

 

i thought the e-brake light indicator was at the lever?

 

pressure differential switch

 

Do you know what year Jeep started using a pressure differential switch in the braking system? I suspect mine doesn't have one... or I just did a damned good job of bleeding all four corners by myself without tripping the sensor.

Anyway, to the OP, post number 12 in the link below describes how to address a tripped hydraulic pressure differential switch.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...-light-465959/

 

Mines on too. It's the pressure junk. I think you just have to bleed each a few times to even the pressure out
Crap, this thread reminded me to check my shoes lol. I hate those damn things

 

I don't know a vehicle that hasn't had one since the feds mandated split brake systems in '67. All XJ's have them. They sometimes stick, but depending on how you bled the system you may not have tripped it.

The Brake light can be triggered by the switch or the parking brake lever, BTW.

 

I learned something new today.. I always assumed the light was triggered by a switch at the e-brake... cant know everything!

 

X2. I just can't believe that in the dozens of brake jobs I've performed, I've not once tripped that sensor-that-I-didn't-know-existed. Skillz [cough luck].

 

Ok. So I got the light to go off. I ended up bleeding the hell out of the brakes. I would pump and open one side around 10 times and then alternate. I was really unsure which side to focus on. After doing that for about 20 minutes with the jeep off to no avail, I tried it while the jeep was running. After alternating once or twice and the light going off and coming back on, it finally went off and stayed off.

I then adjusted the e-brake cable. It was so loose that it was laying on the drive shaft and wore a line in the rust around the shaft. Obviously needed to be tightened. I think I may have gotten too tight though. the cables feel relatively loose still but the handle is stiff as hell. Also, the driver side cable didn't feel like it pulled as far as the passenger side when i was adjusting it. Then when I went for a test drive she was still slowing due to the brake being engaged. I smelled the brakes and I could smell a little brake smell on the driver side but nothing on the passenger side.

I adjusted the drum shoes through the hole with a screw driver until I felt a little resistance before I put the wheels on and adjusted the e-brake. So I'm unsure if I adjusted the shoes too tight or I adjusted the e-brake cables too tight. The stiff e-brake handle makes me lean towards the latter as well as the smell after the test drive and the fact that the cables don't seem to match.

Just wondering what your opinions are on this? Any and all help is appreciated!

 

First place to look are the cables seized in the sheath?

 

I don't believe so. They were both moving in and out when I would pull on them. I'm unsure what you mean by sheath though. They had a clear coating over the metal cables. Is that what you are referring to?

 

Bump