Handbrake

[brappage]

Morning Guys,

Pulled the car out the garage yesterday after fitting a new battery for a much needed clean inside and out prior to taxing it the start of April.

One thing which I had forgotten how annoying it is is the handbrake not working.

Has anyone come up with a solution to this? Replacement parts or methods of adjusting it to work? Ive had two goes at stripping, cleaning and adjusting but its still not good enough to hold the car on any type of slope. Hopefully with the talent on here for designing the various parts someone has come up with a fix for this?

Cheers,

Euan

[Blu3R]

Mine will hold the car on some pretty steep slopes on just the first click. All standard parts, nothing changed or replaced from new (21k miles though) so it should be possible to get it working correctly without having to modify anything.

[D_G]

After sorting mine out it's now really good. I fitted new shoes as the linings were detached.

[Craighb]

Get them relined - cost about £15 from an old school brake lining company and now they work perfectly.

[jl34]

i spent hours on mine. i guarantee you relining them will do nothing. From memory its all about how you re-assemble them. The pin has to be in a certain position relative to the lever when you put them back in . I cant be more specific im afraid it was while ago; but i do remember it took about 10 goes before it worked properly.

[AMG Merc]

The Noble handbrake is there to pass an MOT - that's it.

[brappage]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I might have another go at stripping them and seeing whether its worth re-lining them. Are the shoes not off anything specific that I could order a set?

Rob I think it would struggle to even pass an mot, it hardly bites at all. Theres still plenty of meat on the shoe right enough.

[Metalman]

I've never had a good working handbrake on a Noble either. So I had my shoes relined and done all the adjusting including the adjustment in the tunnel, and it was spot on! It would even hold the car on a steep hill. Then about two weeks later it was back to normal, absolute crap, and I think it has something to do with the adjusters working themselves loose again.

[AMG Merc]

brappage said:

Rob I think it would struggle to even pass an mot, it hardly bites at all. Theres still plenty of meat on the shoe right enough.

Euan, they are generally rubbish. Mine only worked well from new then after a while it only just passed the MOT test for years. Then lasy year Skip at Bespoke got his hands on it. Apparently, the drums were both loose and misaligned inside. Whatever he did in servicing them, it works perfectly now. About as useful as a chocco tea-pot, but it works

[AMG Merc]

Metalman said:

I've never had a good working handbrake on a Noble either. So I had my shoes relined and done all the adjusting including the adjustment in the tunnel, and it was spot on! It would even hold the car on a steep hill. Then about two weeks later it was back to normal, absolute crap, and I think it has something to do with the adjusters working themselves loose again.

Jason, you're not far from Bespoke. They can sort them properly for you.

[D_G]

AMG Merc said:

The Noble handbrake is there to pass an MOT - that's it.

Not in my case, mine went from useless to being that good you can't pull away when it's on. Here's what I did:

Loosen off the cable adjuster behind the centre panel behind the passenger seat, strip off the rear discs and clean the drums with coarse emery cloth. You will probably find a rusty rim, if the emery doesn't shift it use a grinder (not on the friction surface though!). Ideally you want the disc not to have any lip at all on the edge.

Make sure all the mechanism is free, apply a very small amount of copper grease where the back plate and shoes rub, once it's ready to go back together, slip on the disc and adjust up the shoes so the wheel is locked. Back it off slightly until the wheel is free, tap with a soft hammer and tweak it up a knat's cock. It should turn freely but if it is rubbing slightly that's OK, any more than that back it off a bit.

Refit the calipers and adjust up the cable so there is three or so clicks, once that's done make sure the cable is slack at rest and not pulling on the shoes. If so just let the cable off a bit, once that's adjusted correctly you are done.

[tschechone]

mine works fine after playing little bit with this:

http://thumbsnap.com/dtW85xnq
http://thumbsnap.com/uiWsstB2

and if necessary also this:
http://thumbsnap.com/txFEwRXJ

[Metalman]

AMG Merc said:

Jason, you're not far from Bespoke. They can sort them properly for you.

This may be the best solution, if you can't fix it then give it a man that knows what he's doing!

[D_G]

tschechone said:

mine works fine after playing little bit with this:

http://thumbsnap.com/dtW85xnq
http://thumbsnap.com/uiWsstB2

and if necessary also this:
http://thumbsnap.com/txFEwRXJ

If you don't remove the lip on the drum it'll lock but not be tight on the linings. If you follow my instructions it will work fine, and not just for five minutes!

[brappage]

Spot on guys will give this a go and let you know how I get on. Didn't realise you could get in behind the passenger seat to adjust the cable, this should give me a bit of adjustment