I can help you with some of this...

The parking brakes on our 107's biggest problem is disuse. Cables and mechanism will seize up and become inoperative. This would require cleaning, lubrication or replacement of the affected components. When used regularly, they will last the life of the car. My '84 has likely never had any work done on them, yet they work faultlessly. Same on the '79. My '88 560 was another matter....

Parking brake shoes should never be worn out, and yes, a visual inspection should be sufficient. You would be looking for either contamination (grease, oil etc) or separation of the friction material from the steel base. It's possible they could be glazed too. If so sanding would help. If contaminated, they need to be replaced.

I believe that "Starting torque compensation" likely refers to overcoming the adjuster screw initial resistance to being turned, ie, if the screw is somewhat frozen and not entirely free-turning, the torque to turn would exceed the spec.

As far as adjustment on the 560 cables, I haven't done that myself. But again, I would think that to be a less likely scenario given the probable lack of wear to the system.

 

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From section 35, EGv107

 

Yes the exhaust needs to come down.

See this thread.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/2293641-parking-brake-shoe-replace.html

Only concern with taking down the exhaust is breaking an exhaust manifold bolt. Not a real problem for MB. See this thread.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/2417969-exhaust-manifold-broken-bolt.html

 

Good reminder to all to check your parking brake to make sure it's functioning properly.

Don't think its in the owner's manual but the full service manual has a small section on testing the p-brake regularly.

 

Yes the exhaust needs to come down.

When you say "the exhaust needs to come down" do you mean just the rear exhaust line & muffler, or the whole damn thing? Based on other threads I've read that seems unadvisable without a lift and some special MB tools.

I found 49-100 for removing the exhaust but it's not overly detailed.

 

The whole enchilada. But there really isn't much to it. 4 bolts at the manifold 2 at the cross over pipe and unhook all the three maybe 4 rubber hangers. No need to remove the rear muffler from the main pipes.

 

Have you tried to adjust the shoes at the disk instead? Lack of use will make them seize as well.

 

That's a good point. The proper procedure is to adjust the shoes. They only say to loosen screw #3 first so the shoes can be adjusted properly. Screw #3 merely takes out the cable slop if its a little loose already your probably OK to just adjust the screws.

 

John showed me how this parking brake adjustment procedure is done a couple years ago ... well, honestly I just took a bunch of photos (106 photos to be exact) and assisted and watched John work. If you know what you are doing it looks simple for sure but there are a lot of points to consider. Also, having a lift makes the job much more "civilized".

Finding someone today who really knows how to do this can be a challenge. Prior to John doing the job correctly I had paid an Indy a lot of bucks to replace the entire cable and my Ebrake was no better than before. I suspect I did not really need a new cable but instead a proper adjustment of both the cable and the rear brakes.

 

So when should we use E-brake? May be that we don't live in a hilly area, but I can't recall last time I used the e-brakes on our cars. Maybe because they are automatics? Always used to use them on manual cars when we still had them and remember making the adjustments through hole in hub. (also when we had smart-car which was semi-automatic)

Too bad they stick and need to be repaired to pass safety. Don't know if they checked ebrake, but our 18 yr old E320 passed last year. We only need safety when selling car or sometimes when changing insurers on older cars.

 

Have you tried to adjust the shoes at the disk instead? Lack of use will make them seize as well.

That's a good point. The proper procedure is to adjust the shoes. They only say to loosen screw #3 first so the shoes can be adjusted properly. Screw #3 merely takes out the cable slop if its a little loose already your probably OK to just adjust the screws.

Maybe that's a good place to start. My last mechanic claims the screw was as far as it would go, but 20 minutes of verification could save me a lot of time and headache. The manual does say to loosen the screw for post-1985 vehicles though.

So when should we use E-brake? May be that we don't live in a hilly area, but I can't recall last time I used the e-brakes on our cars.

I used to live in San Francisco and parked on a sloped driveway. The brake wasn't enough to hold the car, so I'd have to back it in, engage the brake, then leave it in reverse while I ran around and chocked the wheels before putting in Park and letting the chocks take the weight.

The car has to pass Ontario safety and I noticed the brake wasn't even holding up against a gentle incline in a parking lot so there's 2 good reasons to get it sorted out.

 

The car has to pass Ontario safety and I noticed the brake wasn't even holding up against a gentle incline in a parking lot so there's 2 good reasons to get it sorted out.

Hadn't noticed you were in Ontario.

Have you seen the new inspection Standards? They cover the Parking Brake and explain how it will be tested in Section 3-10. Easy enough to do the test to confirm it will pass.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/trucks/pdfs/passenger-light-duty-vehicle-inspection-standard.pdf

 

Can't say I use it 100% of the time but once I learned that the gear selector can be moved out of park with no key in the iginition...

 

That is a feature of my 107 that I use often!

Our GLK is stored at inner end of garage. 107 just fits end to end in outer bay so I push it into place (in Neutral with engine off, key out).

On the newer cars, if battery dies you can't do that!

 

So I tested my brake a la the testing standard. It holds fine in Drive but not at all in Reverse. Is that just due to the gearing you figure? The 560's default start in 2nd gear, I recall. Which begs the question what first gear is for...

 

Parking brake should hold after the 2cd or 3rd click.
How many clicks did you count when you pressed the Parking Brake?

 

All of them. Like, I push on the pedal as hard as I can, and only get purchase on that last (and oh-so-satisfying) click.
Which leads me to believe I have an issue with the cable and not just a minor shoe adjustment.

But I really just want to pass my safety (I keep a chock in the trunk for parking on a slope) so maybe a few layers of gaffer tape might do the trick for a one-shot.

 

My 1986 560SL required me to press the E-brake all the way to the floor and then just barely held. After getting it properly adjusted, its now firm at 2 clicks.

 

Well I finally had time to try the adjustment and I can't say it did much good. However, if I push the pedal all the way down (5 clicks) it holds (but just barely). I think that should get me past the safety at least. I'll leave a post-it note in the car to instruct 5 clicks.

Is it worth removing the hub to inspect the shoes themselves? And there was a decent amount of surface rust on the hub -- should I be worried about that? I don't usually drive in the rain but have been caught out twice in the last month.

At least now I own a decent jack & tire iron now, and I built a few cribs in lieu of jack-stands should I actually need to drop the exhaust system.

 

Just to close this loop, I brought the car in for a safety inspection and when it went up on the lift it was leaking fluids in multiple places. The shop owner traced it down to the steering box and one brake caliper. For a lark we pulled the hub to check out the parking brake shoes and found the source of my trouble -- someone had threaded a too-long bolt that went through the wheel, through the hub and self-tapped into the PB actuator, snapping the spring in the process!

So the car is now legal in Ontario and I have a 2-click parking brake. I'm also realizing my previous mechanic wasn't nearly as thorough as I thought.