Parking Brake System: Description and Operation

DESCRIPTION

The parking brakes consist of the following components:

- Hand-operated park brake lever
- Parking brake cables (one each side)
- Caliper equalizer
- Caliper with Integrated Parking Brake (IPB)

All vehicles are equipped with a center-mounted, hand-operated parking brake lever mounted between the front seats. The parking brake must be manually adjusted after it is disconnected or when replacing components.

There is an individual parking brake cable for each rear wheel that joins a parking brake cable equalizer, attached to the parking brake lever, to the rear parking brakes. The parking brake cables are made of flexible steel cable.

The brake caliper used for the foundation brakes features an Integral Parking Brake (IPB) which combines a mechanical parking brake function with a conventional rear caliper.

This caliper features a lever attached to a shaft on the outside of the caliper. The lever uses a ball-ramp mechanism to mechanically apply piston clamp force to the rear rotor when the parking brake lever is applied. As the lever and shaft rotate, the ball-ramp interface causes the shaft to lift and the piston to travel toward the rotor.