Late 85 and newer Vanagons have a much improved parking brake due to a
redesigned handle/ratchet assembly. It is a simple matter to fit this to
an older model. Your 86 should already have the better type so your
problem is likely improper adjustment of the rear brakes.

An important step in servicing of the rear brakes is to LOOSEN the
parking brake cable before adjusting the rear shoes. Once the shoes are
adjusted properly then the cable can be tightened to give proper
operation of the parking brake.

When the brake shoes are improperly adjusted, it is possible for the
cable lever on the rear most shoe to contact the bearing hub before the
shoes fully engage the drum. When this happens, the parking brake handle
will pull no further but the parking brake will be ineffective. The
solution is to loosen the cable quite a bit, then tighten the shoe
adjuster until the shoes start to drag on the drum. Adjust both sides.
Then tighten the parking brake cable. The Bentley says a pull of 2-4
notches of the handle should stop the wheels from turning.

Mark

Brian and Carol Megas wrote:
>
> The emergency brake on our 86 Westy doesn't seem to
> work as well as we would like. When we park on
> a small hill and put the emergency brake on, it doesn't
> quite stop our van from rolling. When the van was last
> in at the shop for servicing, the boys adjusted the
> emergency brake and said that was as good as it gets.
>
> When I pull on the emergency brake handle, it will make
> eight clicks before it gets too hard to pull
> it any more. The boys at the shop said the brakes, brake
> pads, etc. are all in good shape.
>
> I thought that before I jacked up the back of the van
> to adjust things myself that I would ask the question: Do
> other list members find that their emergency brakes
> work really well on hills, or not?
>
> Thanks, Brian
>