CanuckMerc

Hey folks hope someone has an answer for me on this one.
Brand new parking brakes put in. The driver's side wasn't any problem and the wheel rotor went on nice.
Went to the passenger side and 3 hours later I still can't get the wheel rotor to fit over the parking brake pads.

I had to put in a new buckle but I've double checked the part number and they are the same.

I took the brakes off and on about 3 times, even undoing the brake cable a few times to make sure it wasn't caught or snagged in it's hole. The buckle moves freely as it should after getting the pin in but once the pads are on, they are too big. It's like the spacer is too big but that's not the problem they are both the same and brand new. I can't use the old buckle it's gone. The springs are in, the coil springs on both sides are in, everything is mounted and the son of a gun is too big???!!

CanuckMerc

So after reasoning everything out, the replacement buckle is the correct part number, the buckle is properly placed, the pads are sitting in the uchannels on one end and when I put together the other end together and ensure the adjuster is backed right off to the spring...it's still a bit too big around in circumference. The rotor will not fit. The only thing I can think of now sitting here is, are all four parking brake pads in a kit the same length? Or are two slightly smaller?

CanuckMerc

For anyone following this thread, the answer here is indeed the cable is too tight. Shoes should be resting against the boss and lever in expansion lock should be resting against the stop.
In this case we need to loosen the cable slack adjuster.

Tdott

Yes, looks like you need to loosen the cable.

It's always good to do that before adjusting.

CanuckMerc

Yep and I didn't even need that until right at the end on the passenger side. My wife feeds me eggs in the morning...me strong.
So reviewing almost everything I could find online before attempting the funny thing is....not one tutorial out there mentioned anything about loosening (still have no idea where that area is) a cable line beforehand. Not frigging one. Not even Autodoc. No one mentions it.

On the plus side, I'm not a mechanic. I've learned on this car and I recommend everyone in the world buys a 15 year old mercedes and spends the next 5 years learning and buying tools. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. Shoot all the time I've wasted playing hockey, football and golf...having fun and doing whatever I want when I could have been under this car for months on end having a hoot.