Too much Viagra in the parking brake?

[Renzo-SF]

The parking brake lever on my '67 GTV keeps jumping up when I release it. Sometimes the rear brakes seem to be on, but sometimes not, when the lever is released. Generally, I just keep releasing the handle a few times as I start off driving and it soon settles down and stops springing up. But the other day I'd applied the emergency brake at a stop light, and then stalled the car when the light turned green because the rear brakes were obviously still engaged when I released the handle and started to pull away.

An emergency/parking brake is pretty much essential to driving and parking in San Francisco so I need to get this sorted. I will tell you that the parking brake cable is genuine Alfa and less than 5 years old, so I believe that should have some life left? Oh--and I do still have the original Dunlop brakes. All thoughts and suggestions welcomed (but please don't tell me to switch to ATE)!

[papajam]

With the vehicle on level ground, engine off and the trans in gear or wheels chocked, engage the hand brake. Crawl under the rear of the car at the differential. Have a helper release and push down the hand brake lever. Check the tension of the short cables going to each wheel. If slack, the hand brake shoes/mechanism at the wheel(s) are binding. If no slack, the long main cable is binding.

[Chsmadden]

So what does this have do with Viagra?

I agree, I always use the handbrake to hold the car in place on an incline. So if that brake cable binds up, you're pretty SOL, JWF, and USC.

If it has the orig. brakes in the back, I'm pretty sure that the shoes are binding up. Last week on Cartalk, they had a guy who had one dragging wheel when going in reverse(or something), and it turned out that the piston that pushed the shoes onto the drum was seizing up, maybe you need to check the mechanical equivalent of those on your car.

Don't forget the liquid wrench.
Good luck, tell us how it ends up.

[rafael]

I have had this in my car.

Probably the cable is sliding smoothly in the jacket. When you push the lever down, it should slide completely in the jacket. What is currently happening is that the jacked is moved downwards, and it comes up like a spring.

[5yearplan]

Usc?...................