Handbrake, or lack of...

[yosini]

Hi,

Just thought I better check when the MOT runs out on the Cerb, and it was over a month ago....oops. So now my mind turns to all the things that it could fail on. And to the one thing I know it WILL fail on.

I know Cerbs handbrakes are notoriously useless but mine when yanked on in a flat carpark prevents it from rolling slightly, other than that it is rubbish.

Can anyone offer any advice, other than bribe Mr MOT?

Cheers

Joe

[scotty_d]

Mine works well hold the car no problems , My old chims was pretty poor due to the little amount of leverage you could apply on it. A new set of cables and shoes should fix it when set up correctly or just some adjustment may be needed.

[Tanguero]

The Cerb handbrake is absolutely fine when it is properly adjusted.

Jack up the back of the car onto axle stands and take both rear wheels off.
Let the handbrake off.
Turn each brake drum until the hole in the drum is at 6 o'clock.
Flick the adjuster inside the drum with the tip of a screwdriver until the brake shoe locks the drum in place.
Pound the drum with a rubber mallet - this will probably loosen things up so tighten the adjuster until it is just locked and keep repeating until it stays that way.
Back off the drum adjuster one or two clicks until the drum just turns freely.
Repeat for other side.
Lie under the car and reach directly upwards, just in front of the diff on the drivers side of the propshaft, and you should be able to feel a large nylon adjuster on the handbrake cable where it goes into the fixing plate.
Tighten the adjuster as far as you can get it by hand, then back it off half a turn or so.

Test the handbrake - with luck it should now hold the wheels solid on the 2nd click. You may need to pull on the lever a few times then re-adjust everything if there is a lot of slack in the system.

ETA: If the above doesn't make it work right then it is probable that you either have a cable seized up internally, or that one of the outer sheath ends has come out of its slot in the plate above the diff. Or the nylon adjuster is loose on the threads and is slipping.

Edited by Tanguero on Thursday 17th May 16:51

[Mr Cerbera]

Nice one, Peter !



(Mine failed twice, last year, until I went through a process like this then, in the third test, the tester smacked his head on the windscreen - Oh how I laughed )

[kojak]

I've not had a handbrake since getting my car nearly 10 years ago

[PuffsBack]

Tanguero said:

The Cerb handbrake is absolutely fine when it is properly adjusted.

Totally agree with this, mine was adjusted at the last service and is now perfectly fine, where as before it worked but needed a hell of a yank to get it told hold the car on a hill

[greenracing]

Agree that the handbrake woks well when all parts are good and adjustment is done correctly. It is an easy job to replace shoes if they are to blame, but you will probably find that surface rust on the drum face on the inside of the disc is the problem. Take off the discs and check that the surface on the inside where the shoes make contact is nice and clean, then scrub up the lining material on the shoes with a bit of 400 wet and dry as they will probably be shinny and feel like glass.

[pia1361]

APM Andy stripped down the handbrake system, fitted a new cable etc during my last service. All of which made a world of difference. Near enough as good as any car despite the lever being awkwardly high

Cheers

John