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DaveNP · Aug 20th, 2018, 19:50

Well I didn't feel like it at the weekend so I attacked the handbrake this afternoon. I took out the centre console so I could see what was going on with the handbrake cables at that end, not too tricky a job and it meant I could see the adjustment and do it so much quicker than fiddling through the bottom of the cubby hole in the armrest. The cables were running freely so I slacked them right off and set to on the drums/discs. I undid the caliper bolts to give the room to get the disc off but didn't need to disconnect the hydraulics, with a bit of dexterity I popped the disc off and put the caliper back with the bolts done loosely to save it dangling.
Inside the drum the shoes are virtually free to float about, the only fixed point is where they rest on a projection from the backplate by the lever that operates the handbrake, the adjustment screw is free to move where it wants. Looking over all the bits, the adjuster was in good condition opening and closing easily and the handbrake activating arm/lever was good, the cables were free at the drum end, so far so good. The rest stop at the bottom of the backplate/shoes was a bit crusty with corrosion so I gave that a little attention with the tip of a file to clean it off. There are also a couple of bolt heads on the backplate at the bottom which the activating arm seems to rest on. I reassembled everything with some dabs of copper grease and making sure the activating arm was resting on the bolt heads rather than getting caught beside them and put the disc/drum back. Having the console out meant it was easy to tighten the cable in order to give the handbrake a few pulls to settle the shoes then slack it back off to do the adjustment. A few cycles of adjust tighten on off on off slacken adjust seemed to get to a good point, and then repeat the whole thing on the other drum.

I now have a handbrake that works both forward and backwards!

A few extra observations- even now the handbrake is more effective forwards than backwards, which I suppose is what you want as it is also an emergency brake if your hydraulics fail, and in road testing it and bedding in the shoes that's all done going forward, but I haven't tested it parking facing up a proper hill yet. When I was removing the calipers both of the inner pads were very difficult to remove being jammed in with dirt and corrosion, that is consistent with the state of the calipers when I replaced all of the back brakes about 3 years ago and the inner pistons were seized too. There's not a lot of adjustment left on the handbrake lever but at 20 years old perhaps that's to be expected.

Thanks for the help and tips, hopefully that's a problem solved for me and some info for anyone who's looking in future.

Aug 20th, 2018, 19:50	#19
DaveNP Non VOC Member Last Online: Yesterday 21:52 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Milton Keynes	Update Well I didn't feel like it at the weekend so I attacked the handbrake this afternoon. I took out the centre console so I could see what was going on with the handbrake cables at that end, not too tricky a job and it meant I could see the adjustment and do it so much quicker than fiddling through the bottom of the cubby hole in the armrest. The cables were running freely so I slacked them right off and set to on the drums/discs. I undid the caliper bolts to give the room to get the disc off but didn't need to disconnect the hydraulics, with a bit of dexterity I popped the disc off and put the caliper back with the bolts done loosely to save it dangling. Inside the drum the shoes are virtually free to float about, the only fixed point is where they rest on a projection from the backplate by the lever that operates the handbrake, the adjustment screw is free to move where it wants. Looking over all the bits, the adjuster was in good condition opening and closing easily and the handbrake activating arm/lever was good, the cables were free at the drum end, so far so good. The rest stop at the bottom of the backplate/shoes was a bit crusty with corrosion so I gave that a little attention with the tip of a file to clean it off. There are also a couple of bolt heads on the backplate at the bottom which the activating arm seems to rest on. I reassembled everything with some dabs of copper grease and making sure the activating arm was resting on the bolt heads rather than getting caught beside them and put the disc/drum back. Having the console out meant it was easy to tighten the cable in order to give the handbrake a few pulls to settle the shoes then slack it back off to do the adjustment. A few cycles of adjust tighten on off on off slacken adjust seemed to get to a good point, and then repeat the whole thing on the other drum. I now have a handbrake that works both forward and backwards! A few extra observations- even now the handbrake is more effective forwards than backwards, which I suppose is what you want as it is also an emergency brake if your hydraulics fail, and in road testing it and bedding in the shoes that's all done going forward, but I haven't tested it parking facing up a proper hill yet. When I was removing the calipers both of the inner pads were very difficult to remove being jammed in with dirt and corrosion, that is consistent with the state of the calipers when I replaced all of the back brakes about 3 years ago and the inner pistons were seized too. There's not a lot of adjustment left on the handbrake lever but at 20 years old perhaps that's to be expected. Thanks for the help and tips, hopefully that's a problem solved for me and some info for anyone who's looking in future. __________________ David V70 2.5 10v Torslanda Manual 98 Sreg Last edited by DaveNP; Aug 20th, 2018 at 19:53.