[nwf_snake]

Hate to just jump in here without really answering your question, but my guess is that you really need to adjust the rear brakes, not the parking brake. Those self-adjusting mechanisms rarely work well, even on Hondas (my experience with 3 Accords with rear drums), and usually by adjusting the rear brakes properly your parking brake works with only 2 to 4 clicks. In any case, I am sure one of the tech gurus here will jump in with the actual parking brake adjustment procedure. Be sure, though, to make sure your rear shoes are adjusted properly first.

As I just posted on another topic in this section today, I once had a Honda dealer who would do this as part of the x7500 services. Ah, those good ole days...

 

[FW_in_OKC]

I think the 02's have rear discs. What year is your van?

Fred

 

[odyguy]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by FW_in_OKC:
I think the 02's have rear discs. What year is your van?

Fred</font>

I have a 2000 with the drums. I was hoping this would be a rather simple procedure?

 

[SuperDad]

Several tidbits of information....

Most cars with drum brakes only auto-adjust when travelling backward and the brakes are depressed. They may not adjust well if you are not a wee bit agressive while braking in reverse. You might want to find a parking lot and do 10-20 good hard reverse stops. You only get one or two stops of a ratchet mechanism per stop, so maybe more is in order. Go, check the number of clicks of parking brake you need, do 10 and check again. If it is a smaller number of clicks, try some more. They should not over-auto-adjust.

You could also pull a brake drum and adjust them by hand a bit.

There is also an adjustment at the pedal, but the manual indicates the adjuster out back should be checked and the shoes adjusted before adjusting the pedal adjuster. Note that the manual states 3-5 clicks is normal travel for the drum brake type. The adjustment is a nut on a threaded shaft that runs vertically up the right side of the pedal assembly. Turn the nut clockwise until the rear brakes drag a bit while off the ground(under hand pressure). It seems to imply that that should be the spot where 3-5 clicks will have complete brake application. Note that they never indicate you should release that slight drag. I assume you'll just grind of a wee bit of brake shoe very quickly.