hand brake cable / diff question

[pmessling]

I have an late 04 reg 4.5lw and with the planned work on my diff that i hope to start next week i'm going to attempt to make the handbrake usable. Although there are two types of cable available a 122" and 105" would any one know what one is needed?

Also with removing the diff i want to replace all the nuts and bolts. I've found all the other except a little confused with the drive shaft bolts as race tech show two types, although both M10, they are 1.50 and 1.25 so a finer thread is there a particular time when one particular thread of bolt was used?

Thanks

Peter

[Mr Cerbera]

Best of luck with the Handbrake improvement Pater. Will be very interested in any progress you make there.

My car actually goes faster when I put the handbrake on

[pmessling]

well as long as its usable is the main thing, don't mind parking and leaving it in gear its more of the hill starts as i would prefer to change the handbrake shoes then the clutch.

[Tanguero]

Getting the handbrake working is fiddly but by no means impossible, mine works just fine now I have fixed the bracket above the propshaft and the slipping top adjuster.

If you reach up from underneath, on the drivers side of the propshaft and just in front of the diff there is a knurled white nylon adjuster with a nylon locknut that tightens the looped cable against a bracket on the chassis. On mine not only was the bracket bent so one side of the loop of cable wasn't held in place, but when that was fixed the nylon adjuster would slip if you pulled too hard on the handbrake lever.

The bracket bent back into place and I added a slotted metal plate for the cable to run through to reinforce it. To stop the nylon adjuster slipping a hose clamp around the thread once it was all adjusted works fine.

If that mechanism is ok on yours then it is just a case of adjusting in the following order.

Jack up the back and put it on axle stands. Let the handbrake lever right off.
On the rear handbrake drums there is an adjusting hole, turn the wheel so that is at at the bottom and you can reach in with a screwdriver and lever the adjuster up and down one click at a time. Adjust both back wheels so they lock, bray the drum with a rubber mallet and they will loosen off. Tighten up to locking point again and repeat until they don't loosen when you beat them. Back the adjusters off by one click so the wheels will just turn.

Now raise the handbrake lever to the point that you want it to start operating - don't just pull it all the way up - one click is fine.

Under the car, tighten the nylon adjuster until the cable is as taught as you can get it, then lock off the adjuster with its own locknut backed up by a hose clamp round the cable sheath.

Hey presto! One working handbrake. In future the only adjustment you need to make is a click on the rear wheel adjusters once in a rare while. Mine even works on hills...

[pmessling]

will look into this before i change the cables and shoes that i've ordered along with everything else, got a nice pile of parts accumulating in the conservatory

[JensenA]

Peter (Tanguero) You may have been lucky adjusting it that way, and it is definitely worth trying to see if it helps the handbrake work better. But the handbrake cable is actually 2 cables. The handbrake lever operates a primary short cable that pulls a U shaped bracket. The secondary cable goes from one handbrake shoe, loops round the U bracket, then continues to the other handbrake shoe. The knurled plastic adjuster you described just adjusts the 'balance' between the left and right (axle) brakeshoes -ie it is used to equalise the cable length between the 2 axles. The primary method for adjusting the amount that that the equalised secondary cable pulls the handbrake shoes is achieved by adjusting the length of the primary cable.

[Tanguero]

JensenA said:

Peter (Tanguero) You may have been lucky adjusting it that way, and it is definitely worth trying to see if it helps the handbrake work better. But the handbrake cable is actually 2 cables. The handbrake lever operates a primary short cable that pulls a U shaped bracket. The secondary cable goes from one handbrake shoe, loops round the U bracket, then continues to the other handbrake shoe. The knurled plastic adjuster you described just adjusts the 'balance' between the left and right (axle) brakeshoes -ie it is used to equalise the cable length between the 2 axles. The primary method for adjusting the amount that that the equalised secondary cable pulls the handbrake shoes is achieved by adjusting the length of the primary cable.

Alan, I hate to disagree, but the adjuster in fact operates on the whole length of the long cable because the cable isn't fixed into the U shaped bracket. Although the adjuster is only on one side of the long cable as you tighten it it tightens the whole loop of cable by shortening it. When the handbrake is pulled it heaves on the middle of the cable but that middle point is free to slide, therefore it always pulls on both back wheels evenly.

It is an odd cable with 2 outer sections and a longer inner. The nylon adjuster is on one of the outer sections and the other outer fits into the bracket that I mended. The inner goes right through from one wheel round the U shaped bracket and to the other wheel. Because both outers are fixed at each end
using the nylon adjuster effectively tightens he whole arrangement.

I spent a long time trying to adjust it as you suggest and it wasn't until I figured out how it actually operates that I had any success. The short primary cable adjustment is to accommodate fitting a new cable - not for adjusting the effectiveness of the handbrake. The adjuster I suggest using has about 6 inches of travel - not the inch or two of the one on the U bracket.

Edited by Tanguero on Friday 22 October 21:34

[JensenA]

Hmmmm. you've got me thinking now, you may be right (but so might I be ) I adjusted mine using the longer secondary cable, but couldn't get it to 'bite' until I went and adjusted the shorter cable attached to the Handbrake lever. As you say, the longer cable just loops through the U thingy, the actual inner cable on the secondary cable can't be shortened, adjusting the knurled plastic nut appeared to only tighten/adjust the outer sleeve to allow the ends of the outer cable to sit tightly in the recess on the hub uprights.
I'm sitting here drinking a glass (or 3) of 10 yr old Glen Devron and scratching my head trying to work it out

[Tanguero]

Yes - the nylon adjuster thingy doesn't actually shorten the inner cable - it pushes the outer part against the bracket so it take up more slack - like the adjustment on the throttle cable. The effect is the same as shortening it because it reduces the free length.

[JensenA]

Cool - mine must have had the shorter cable to long, hence it needed adjusting to get the shoes to bite - were both right then (I think)

[Demondad]

I don't know about everyone else but these guys may have solved one of the mysteries of the Cerbera. There is a handbrake after all. Hosanna! Thank you wise men!