hi everyone,
finished replacing the OFFSIDE handbrake cable today, however it still doesnt hold the wheel locked after adjusting, the NS works perfectly, what if i replaced the nearside cable so they are both new, will it be balanced out between them better and hold both wheels evenly? im 100% sure ive got the right cable as mine is a from 1A chassis and so is the cable (the creaking has dissappeared for now)

i did both of mine in one go it will be pulling on one side have you made sure your shoes are adjusted

yep shoes are adjusted, i had to adjust the OS cos i couldnt get the drum back on, i experimented by adjusing the OS to exectly the same as the NS by looking at how much thread was visable from the adjuster and so did to the same amount on the OS, but then i couldnt get the drum on, so had to adjust a bit more to pull the shoes in and now drum is on, car braking is fine but just the handbrake doesnt hold the OS wheel.

just ordered handbrake cable for the left side so will do that at the weekend hopefully.

just on a note, where the adjuster nut is behind the handbrake, it seems as though the right hand cable (new one) isnt pulling as much as the left side, hense not locking, so do you think renewing the left will help them work together better?

how to adjust you back brakes properly here goes first on the back of the brake plate there is a little rubber bung pull it out and put it safe get a torch and shine it in you will see the adjuster get a flat bladed screw driver and just flick the adjuster on a saw tooth like have the car in neutral and while flicking the adjuster before doing it again try rotating your wheel if it still rotate then keep flicking when the wheel comes to a stop you need to flick the adjuster to oposite way just slightly and check the wheel again until it just spins slightly without any drag and now you have done it you now need to do the other side just to not it is best to have both wheels of the ground on axel stands
hope this helps

ok, both handbrake cables are brand new, double checked they are the correct parts which they are, went by the chassis no and not the year.

still have the problem of OS not locking, could it be the accutator whatsit?, is it a moveable part and may need a good clean and grease up? or the adjuster?

once everything was assembled and by watching the two cables move behind the handbrake leaver as i pull it up and down, it seems as though the OS cable doesnt return properly and sit equal to the NS cable, NS cable has plenty of movement as is working and locking the wheel great, the OS has little movement.

could the problem lie somewhere in the drum and it may of never of been the cable as its doing exactly what it was doing before i renewed it.

To conclude this Fred. Turns out the reason I had a poor handbrake performance in one side was due to the acutator seizing.
To fix this once n for all so i had two working handbrakes and no scraping of the shoes i striped diwn both drums, cleaned every part with brake cleaner including backplates, greased up the backplate, rubbed down just a touch of the edge of the shoes, freed up both acutators withwd40 (now they both spin freely) stripped down, cleaned n wd40'd the adjusters, they now work ten times better. Rubbed down n cleaned inside of drums, reassembled all, adjusted shoes right up to drum then backed off just a tad, then adjusted handbrake. Now I have silent working brakes. turns out i didnt need to spend 50 quid on 2 new handbrake cables but hey atleast they are new n not stretched.
I just shows that new parts are not always the fix.