Tuscan Handbrake Adjustment

[24heuresdemans]

The handbrake on my Tuscan is poor at the best of times. I have yet to have put the car up on the ramps to have a look yet. I wondered however how you go about adjusting it.

From within the car the lever only goes up a couple of notches and does not feel as though it will go any further. I assume there must be some means of adjusting it from underneath the car.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks

[davido140]

Dont know the answer but I eagerly await the person that does!

I parked mine on a relatives drive last week, came out of the house to find it 6 feet further down the drive than where I had left it !!!!!!

any more of a slope and it would have been in someone elses hall-way!!!!

[southgate]

Adjustment is underneath car. Above and slightly to the rear of the diff.

Its a plastic winder. Wind one way for tighter, the other for slacker!

[Basil Brush]

The key to getting the hand brake to work is to make sure the levers on the callipers themselves move freely and return fully, otherwise the self adjustment mechanisms will not work. Do this first and then use the nylon adjuster to take out any slack in the cable with the calliper levers on their return stops.

[24heuresdemans]

Thanks for the advice. That will be my project for the weekend

[S6PNJ]

I need to adjust my hand brake cable as well, probably need to replace the cable. Is it a 'standard' Ford Sierra item does anyone know? The rear calipers are Ford Sierra so is it a logical assumption to make that the cable would also be?

[The Tivster]

davido140 said:

Dont know the answer but I eagerly await the person that does!

I parked mine on a relatives drive last week, came out of the house to find it 6 feet further down the drive than where I had left it !!!!!!

any more of a slope and it would have been in someone elses hall-way!!!!

Bet you wouldn't have minded if it was the hall-way of the receptionist at work!!

[24heuresdemans]

The self adjusting mechanism inside the caliper doesn't always self adjust. As a result when the pads wear down no matter how much you adjust the cable the handbrake will not apply enough tension. The hanbrake relies upon a threaded stud inside the caliper pushing the piston out in order to maintain handbrake performance. If this isn't working properly no amount of adjudstment on the cable will work. I ended up having to.strip the calipers down to get them to work properly. Only then did I adjust the cable to take up the slack

[S6PNJ]

Thanks. I'm fairly sure it's not the caliper itself (unless I've been given a bum steer by my independant service agent) and I've previously had a good look at the caliper and it seems to be fairly free anyway. Do things like 'old fashioned scrap yards' still exist where you can get your hands dirty and remove the bit you want? or are they all 'I'll see if I've got one on the shelf' type outfits now? I guess health and safety has made most (if not all) of them have to go down this route. I'll have to check my local one to see what his policy is if I need to get a caliper to replace mine (and recondition it of course before anyone starts - 'Oh I wouldn't put that on mine...' type thread).