Handbrake gone

Noticed today there wasn't much Renton behind the handbrake

When I pushed the car turns out the handbrake isn't working anymore but was previously. Before I take wheels off I just wanted some advice please on what to check first

Is it just cable operated? Is it likely to have snapped ?

I wouldn't bother taking the wheels off .....

The handbrake on a series is on the end of the gearbox

Just a single drum mounted where the rear propshaft flange is ....Adjustment is via an adjuster A-La-drum brake on the back of the mounting plate ...along with adjustment on the linkage .

First thing id check is where the bell crank is mounted to the chassis nearby as the bushes wear and you end up with the hand brakes lever just wasting all it's movement swivelling the bell crank around .
Then whip the hand brake drum off and check for the brake shoes being contaminated with ep90 from the box (though you should still be able to get a decent braking effort with oil soaked shoes ....it's not ideal and may be worth sorting the seal out while your in there)
As for adjusting the hand brake ...after you have nice clean brake shoes and a working bell crank pivot then adjust the adjuster in until the drum is catching slightly (worth getting someone to pull the hand brake on whilst you spin the drum to centralise the shoes)
only after that start shortening the handbrake linkage adjuster to limit lever travel

You can do all the above checks by removing the middle seat and the plate under it. This lets you see easily how the hand brake lever pulls up, via the bell crank, and pulls out the rod which actuates the brake in the back of the drum. If you do that first you may have a better idea of why the brake is not braking. The adjuster takes a very small spanner (I use 4BA from memory) but if the brake is not working at all it's not likely you'll be able to cure it just with that - see previous post!

Hmm.. will have ago tommrowo, thanks all. is it a big job getting to the handbrake shoes ?

biker1981 said:

Hmm.. will have ago tommrowo, thanks all. is it a big nob getting to the handbrake shoes ?

Click to expand...

if yer mean "job" it's fairly straight forward

haha sorry i did mean job.

Is it common for the handbrake just to stop working ?

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f6/hand-brake-not-attached-transmission-brake-184203.html

it may just be seized