Handbrake not working after rear caliper rebuild
 

Alright, so after fully disassembling the rear calipers, cleaning most of the rust off, replacing all the rubber and reassembling I appear to have handbrake issues. The cables are fine, the actuator hooks that are pulled by the cables spin nicely until they hits their limiters (not at the same time, for some reason).

The handbrake lever goes high up. When it's at the highest position the wheels are held hard enough to prevent turning by hand, but not nearly enough to hold the car in place, I can just drive around with the lever poking at the ceiling.

I need some insight here, where could I have screwed up? Is there a special procedure to put those hooks back in place? Could I have not inserted the handbrake mechanism ring retainers back in the cylinder bore properly?

Hows the foot brake working with the rear wheels?
It would be hard to tell if the rear's are working adequately when the front brakes would hold the car.
To be honest my first thought was air trapped within the rear caliper's somewhere, my second thought, on purchasing reconditioned rear calipers, there was a note warning not to move the handbrake mechanism before fitting and advice if this should happen was to reset the caliper.
I'm afraid I can't remember the procedure for this, but will have a look when home if I still have the said bit of paper or if someone out there knows this procedure.

Well, the car stops and doesn't feel like the rear brakes are missing, though I guess it could be difficult to tell if they were. The pedal is spongy, there probably is some air in the lines, but not any spongier than it was before. Still working on that pressure bleeder.

That's interesting, why not move the handbrake mechanism? Pretty sure I've tested whether it moves a few times before fitting each of the calipers, though I can't understand what's wrong with that. Do let me know if you find that piece of paper.

Here you go.

http://www.midlandvehiclecomponents...._procedure.pdf

'To reset the handbrake mechanism if the lever has been operated before fitting then the piston should be turned ‘in’
using the above methods. When the piston is fully ‘IN’ then the piston should be turned ‘OUT’ half to 1 turn.
The handbrake mechanism is now set.'

I never knew the information on this sheet. I don't know why it isn't supplied with every replacement calliper!

Oh, I see, so there basically is some slack between the handbrake screw and the piston, so the piston has to be manually rotated outwards after a finishing a rebuild to take the slack out.

Golden information, thanks a bunch!

If you have wound the piston right back as far as it will go, it can often take a while for the mechanism to re-adjust its self, it should adjust eventually by using the foot brake a lot !
When ever i fit new rear pads, i only wind the pistons in just enough so that the new pads will go in !

I'm not sure how it works but part of the mechanism is that its a loose fit thread between the piston and handbrake. I guess that the piston needs to have some free movement back and forward whilst still engaging with the threads of the handbrake mechanism.

You aren't supposed to wind it out by using the pedal to push it out with the brake fluid. Not sure why. I have done it though as when fitting a new calliper I cycled the piston in and out a few times to try and get the small bubbles out (that hide in the mechanism).

In future I will follow the instructions though!

A former and very good mechanic at my work told me that, that you need to screw them in and out a bit to get a good pedal, ok was for my Vectra not the ovlov but it has handbrake type calipers as well so the theory likely applies to all handbrake calipers

Best to fit Recon rear calipers, as the service kits don't include the bushing and connector pin for the handbrake, just the seals.

The Germans like good brakes and garage or stealer is only allowed to rebuild front calipers. Even then there is a risk that corrosion will cause the far or near Eastern seals to fail early if the unit is not pressure tested.

Have you adjusted the handbrake cable properly? You can do that by adjusting the nut. You will need to remove the centre console to access it.

Have a look to see if the connecting plate thingy that holds both left and right handbrake cables is sitting 90 degrees to the adjuster rod. If yes, that means that force is applied equally to both cables.
if it is at an angle then that means that something is not right with either the calliper or that one of the cables is stretched.

On your post, you mentioned that the hook thingy hits the "limiter" stop at different times. That would be a strong indication that the cables are not adjusted, or that one of the cables is stretched (it will be the one for the calliper that hits the limiter later than the other)