960 handbrake

[mjk164]

My car is 1993 960 2.9 auto with live axle.
I had occasion to look at the handbrake since after an MOT, it was almost useless. I had known this for some time and decided, at the same time as doing a rear wheel bearing, the hand brake has to come off to get the half shaft out. I have seen on this website several comments in the past about "run back" after applying the handbrake and thought that was normal. Its not and, if you have issues with the handbrake, then it is most likely the brake shoes have been assembled incorrectly. Mine were last done by Volvo agents (about 1999) before I took ownership, so even they are not necessarily clear about assembly. There are several things you can get wrong.

1. The brake expander can be put in the solid expander housing the wrong way. There might be an arrow on the expander which should be pointing upwards, but after time, it may not be there. The expander is made up of 2 shaped pieces of metal hinged together; the hinge pin joining these 2 parts should be at the top. There will then be slots at the top and bottom of the expander parts to take and locate the shoes.
2. All 4 shoes are the same. One end is straight across with the friction material right to the end of the shoe and there is one round spring hole. The other end, the friction material stops about and inch short of the shoe end, and the end is "waisted" and not straight across, and there is a slot cut into the end of each shoe. Each shoe at this waisted end, has 2 holes for the spring; don't use the round one, the spring only goes into the elongated one.
3. There are 2 springs, one long and one short. The long one goes into the slotted holes (see in 2. above) at the expander (rear) end of the shoe. The short spring goes into the other front end.
4. There is a slotted flat bar about 3" long which locates and holds the front square ends of the shoes (opposite end to the expander) in the slots and are held together with the short spring.

To assemble the shoes, deal with the expander end first, fit the long spring in the slots of both shoes and locate the bottom shoe in the expander; you can then lever the upper shoe, using the wheel hub, into the upper expander slot.
Then fit the flat bar to the forward end of the shoes, and then the short spring into the bottom shoe. I use a length of wire to secure the bottom shoe, and then it is relatively easy to lever up the up the spring into the upper shoe spring hole, but you need the bottom shoe secured with the wire to make this easy. Remove the wire when you're done.

With the shoes properly fitted in the right places and springs, the hand brake works a treat and there is no run back because the shoes are firmly located and held in the sold part of the expander housing.
There is a good description and photos about the above on this website in the FAQ but it needs a little further description.