997.1 Handbrake issue

[Bigmikee]

Hi there.  First time poster.  Just got my 06 c2 and noticed that my handbrake was pretty loose (I needed to pull it up really high to get it to function properly).  i followed the tutorials on rennlist and took the rear wheels off, stuck a screwdriver in one of the lugnut holes, and tried to find the notched star-shaped gear to tighten up.  I couldn't find it on either side and had to pick up my kids, so I put the wheels back on.  As I was picking up my kids, I noticed that there was some drag while driving and when I stepped out of the car, the smell of brakes from the driver side was quite overwhelming.  When I got home, I took the rear driver side wheel off again, and thought that maybe I had tightened that parking brake nut fully.  I tried to find it, but struggled to get it.  At some point, I hit something with my screwdriver that sounded like air was coming out from behind the rotor (it was very faint and lasted maybe two seconds).  I put the wheel back on, and the drag and brake smell were gone, but now the parking brake is even looser and doesn't fully engage on the slight incline on my driveway.  Any ideas what happened?  Thanks!

[Hilux2400]

This is not an easy thing to do and I can understand your difficulty if you have not done it before.  The star shaped thing is at about the horizontal line.  Look through the lug nut hole and use a torch to locate it. The screw threads on the adjusters can seize up if they have not been used.