940 Handbrake shoes

[Jimarilo]

Why am I having a mare of a job with a set of silly little handbrake shoes ??

I have noticed on ebay there are some adjusters for the shoes on a 940, but not on the car I have

Firstly the new shoes would not allow the discs to go back on, with the handbrake cable fully undone

I then noticed the end of the shoes where the h bar fits was slightly wider than the originals, so I filed them down to match. So then the disc's fitted

Trouble now is the near side handbrake doesn't hold fully. I welded the h bar and filed down until the disc fitted tighter, but still does not fully hold

The set up is so bleeding simple it is driving me nuts trying to figure it out

[J liddy]

Yes the handbrake set up can be fiddly iv only done mine once and just about got there. Check everything has to be exact like foe like replacement .there's a good video on YouTube the American garage. Is it FCP EURO iv e watch it very good

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Jimarilo

Why am I having a mare of a job with a set of silly little handbrake shoes ??

I have noticed on ebay there are some adjusters for the shoes on a 940, but not on the car I have

Firstly the new shoes would not allow the discs to go back on, with the handbrake cable fully undone

I then noticed the end of the shoes where the h bar fits was slightly wider than the originals, so I filed them down to match. So then the disc's fitted

Trouble now is the near side handbrake doesn't hold fully. I welded the h bar and filed down until the disc fitted tighter, but still does not fully hold

The set up is so bleeding simple it is driving me nuts trying to figure it out

Did you use volvo shoes?
Inferior ones are too hard so not much grip

I guess you have a couple of clicks of play on the lever

The drums should be clean and smooth with no signs of rust at all.

have you a seized cable one side?

[Rversteeg]

I have recently replaced my handbrake shoes on my 98 940. Like you said, a simple system. I too did not have the adjusters, just a metal strip instead.
New shoes already were an improvement, but I got a further improvement by retrofitting the adjusters. The large holes in the drum allow you to adjust the shoes in the drum, but strangly enough the holes in the drum and wheel hub did not align. I could only get them aligned by mounting the drum a quarter of a rotation rotated, which made it impossible to use the little centering bolt.
The adjusters are less than 8 euro each.

[Jimarilo]

Thanks for your replies

I have ordered a set of adjusters, which will make life much easier and no the shoes were not volvo, but may change yet. Will fit the adjusters when they arrive and see how that works out. Cables look ok.

I am more used to one cable connecting to both sides then a cable pulling centrally direct from the handbrake .....but those were front wheel drive set up's not having to worry about a propshaft ;-)

Anyway I managed to have enough handbrake for the MOT tester today, to give the 28yr old 940 a pass and no advisories. 164K

Work this year running up to the mot included two rear disc's, refurbished rear calipers, hand break shoes, oil change and filter, fuel filter, diff oil change, not enough miles done for an air filter, too clean ;-)

[Jimarilo]

Problem finally resolved .....

New adjusters arrived, so fitted them this afternoon and worked a treat, as rversteed said you can't use the centering bolt once you align the large holes to allow adjustment of the shoes.

However, the problem persisted, but the penny finally dropped. The linkage on the nearside that attaches to the h/brake cable looked as if it was not going back freely. I did question this the other day, but dismissed the thought. Turns out that the pin that connects the linkage to the end of the cable had dropped out of position and blocked the linkage from fully returning. Hence the trouble fitting the disc/drum .....before manipulating the shoes

Pushed the pin back and the adjusters took into account of the mod on the shoes and the handbrake now works perfectly on both sides .....always something simple ! ;-)

[BMWTheBest]

Thanks for your experience! I registered specifically to say thank you
My problem with the pads was solved in the same way