This symptom is usually a sign of the parking brake levers seizing on the shoes or the cables are getting stuck in the sheaths. The cables should never be adjusted without the drums being pulled so you can adjust the gap between the adjuster bar and the levers. Simply taking up the slack in the center will render the adjusters nonfunctional at best but if the brakes are not releasing  fully they will overheat and do some damage if not getting so hot they expand enough to stop you from moving. The loose cable is a sign you need some service back there and an adjustment likely won’t fix it. 

Dennis
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Eric Caron
Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2015 9:25 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Emergency break adjustment

Hi folks,

        While under my van today I noticed my emergency break cable was loose and floppy.  when I looked at it more carefully one side could be easily removed from the bracket.  In fact it wasn’t seated correctly and that is how I noticed.  I turned the nut in the center of the bracket so that the cable didn’t flop around any longer but not so much that it moved the two rear cables forward.  Inside my van my emergency brake went from a max of four clicks up to three. 
        As I can’t read the Bentley does it sound like I have this cable in a reasonable position now? the adjustment nut is currently just about centered on the threaded end of the rod coming from the front of the van.  

Eric Caron 
85 GL auto Westfalia