handbrake
 

Hi everyone. Wonder if anyone can give any advice to a problem I have. Just replaced the handbrake shoes on my 98 V70 following instructions in Haynes manual. Handbrake works fine when holding the car in forward position but park it on a slope & the car rolls backwards. Having adjusted both sides when up on axle stands, I put in a couple of wheel bolts & used a breaker bar to see if the drum could be turned & it couldn't be moved in either direction. Drop the car back onto its wheels & the handbrake is solid in forward direction but in reverse the car still moves. Any suggestions as it is driving me nuts.

Either adjust the cables or if they won't adjust sufficiently, fit new cables.
My cables ran out of adjustment after 14 years.

Back the adjustment off a couple of clicks at the drums and try again.
You did slacken off the cables before adjusting the drums? :cool:

handbrake
 

Cables seem OK, Tried tightening the cables using the hex nut in the centre console. Surely if the problem was with the cables being stretched or worn the handbrake wouldn't work in either direction? When I apply the handbrake & try to drive forwards the car wont move an inch without dragging the wheels. The problem is with the car rolling backwards with handbrake applied.

Tried backing off the adjustment a couple of notches several times. I adjusted them up until the shoes were binding on the drums then backed them off a couple of notches then with 2 wheel nuts fitted to the drum I used a breaker bar to try & turn the drum. No movement at all in either direction. Fit the wheels & drop it off the axle stands & the car rolls backwards with handbrake on. Won't move an inch forward, just doesn't make sense to me.

I would whip the drums off and see what is going on with the shoe mechanism, there could be something not seated or fitted properly. Even the most methodical worker can pop something on back to front or not quite right. Having determined all is well in the hub, then you can look at the cables and anything else that it might be.

Had the drums off a couple of times & to be honest the hinged shoe "spreader" mechanism has had be baffled as to how it can push both shoes out at once as it does not appear to have a solid location & only seems to be attached to the cable. Very different set up to all my previous cars which have all been Toyota.

This any help. Setting them up is a fiddly op. Back the adj. off a bit more and try again.

Having checked Haynes against VIDA the instructions are basically the same. The complete assembly should be assembled and the shoes adjusted to bind the drum then slacken off 4-5 notches. Then the handbrake cable should be adjusted so that full braking force is achieved at 3-5 notches on the lever ratchet. The adjusters must be working, otherwise you would not be able to apply and release the handbrake. I think the adjuster works on the floating principle, whereby it expands one shoe to touch the drum, then uses that leverage to expand the other shoe to tighten both equally in the drum, thus eliminating the very issue you are experiencing. It does seem odd, when everything is presumably adjusted correctly. Perhaps not much use, but hope it helps.

I'm watching this with interest as I have the same problem as Tony. It is not that the handbrake does not work, it works just fine in a forward direction, it just does not work in a backwards direction, that is to the extent that in what appears to be a flat carpark if I park facing 'uphill' the car will roll backwards but the handbrake works sufficiently well that it passes the MOT when tested in the 'normal' forwards direction. I've been adjusting drum brake shoes since my first Mini (BL not BMW) back in 1981 so I think I'm across the 'tighten it up till it binds and back it off two notches' scenario. The V70 handbrake seems almost to have some sort of cam action going on that allows the wheel to turn backwards but not forwards.

I'm starting to incline towards a problem with the cables as like Tony comments when the car is raised it all seems OK but when it hunkers down on the suspension it goes weird, similarly when using the handbrake on a hill the forwards/backwards force of the weight of the car will make it lever itself against the suspension arms, and then the brake plays up.