When I change from track rotors & pads to street rotors & pads on my '92 Miata, I tighten the parking brake adjusters on the rear calipers, then back them off 1/3 turn.
I have parking brake for about a week. Then it takes more and more 'pull' of the parking brake handle to get some brake engagement. After a month of driving, no amount of pull on the parking brake does anything. 
Other than adjusting them monthly, what makes the parking brake on a miata work and keep working?
No clue. But I have to say that the Miata parking brakes are the bane of my existence. I can never seem to get them set right, no matter what I do.
Mine has been unhooked for years. Thanks for reminding me that I should fix that.
Dunno, mine works perfectly. Perhaps your "adjusters" are beat and need to be replaced?
In my experience (NB cars anyways), mine usually got BETTER over time.
I just found this online: Remove the plastic cover around the brake lever. Using a screwdriver, adjust clockwise to reduce free play, setting so the brake is off when released and on when the lever is pulled up 5-7 notches.
Never heard of there being an adjuster at the e-brake handle end of things.
It tightens up the cable at the handle end on the Miata. At the caliper, they call it venting clearance on the 914, not sure what they call it on a Miata. Mine seems to work pretty well on the 914 and the Miata
In reply to Toebra:
Thanks for that. I'll have a look and adjust it!
You can adjust the cable length either at the handle or at the calipers. Basically, you want it to engage after a few clicks. This is unrelated to the piston setting, which I generally set when I change brake pads and never touch again.
What Mr Tanner said. When you change the pads, you adjust the little doo dad on the back of the caliper with an allen wrench, you remove a small bolt to access this. The cable is a separate deal.
You maybe ought to be going here Miata Garage
I'm going to hijack this thread for a sec. I bookmarked this article a few weeks back because of this picture:
This was on a track-prepped NA, as you can see he's rerouted the brake lines and replaced the parking brake with a proportioning valve to adjust the brake bias on the fly (something I will never have the requisite talent to make use of), but then he's also spliced in a ball valve to act as a parking brake. Step on the brake, close the valve, release the brake, and presumably the rear of the system stays pressurized and prevents the car from moving. Then you can remove the cable setup.
Does this work? Is it as cool as it looks? Might this be a slick workaround for those with parking brake issues?
It sorta works...those valves often leak over the course of a few minutes and release the pressure. It's the same kind of line-lock setup you sometimes see put on the front of cars for easy burnouts. Also a separate mechanical handbrake is legally required for street driving in many places.
yep, line lock. Try the opposite procedure. foot off brake, shut valve, foot on brake (only fronts are engaged). Do burnout.
Note that for SCCA purposes, if a class requires a handbrake, it must be mechanically actuated. A line lock does not count.
I seem to remember there is some brake bias built into the master cylinder on Miatas, so you are likely to get limited benefit from proportioning valve. You can use different pads or even put early, smaller brakes in front and the larger, later brakes in the back, but I don't know how good an idea that would be.
There is no brake bias built into the master cylinder of any Miata. Any brake bias comes from the proportioning valve, piston size and rotor sizes.
The problem with a line lock is that it does not represent a redundant system that can stop the car in case of a hydraulic failure.
Keith: I have read that you also get bias from the ABS system on a 2001+ NB. One of these days I'm going to hook up the brake pressure sensors that I have sitting in a box to test this. :)
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