Seized Handbrake on LDV Van (video included)

[brains666]

I've got an LDV van which has been sitting on the drive for a couple of months. Went to use it other day and handbrake seized on. Video below of handbrake mechanism taken from under van.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFH468-wiEQ

Not sure if that video helps or not but confirms to me it's the handbrake as you'll see the cable on left side go floppy/flacid.

Have tried rocking it back and forth, hitting wheels with rubber hammer, tapping area where handbrake cable goes into rear wheels, gassing it, all to no avail. Trouble is it's parked so close to the house I don't have much leeway to do too much rocking and jacking it up is going to be difficult.

Any ideas other than dragging it a few feet to get more access?

Any help appreciated

[GreenV8S]

It's most likely the shoes corroded into the drums but just in case it's the linkage, see if you can confirm the actuating lever has released when the cable goes slack. If so, your best option would be to engage drive forwards and backwards as aggressively as you can, being careful not to crash into anything if it does suddenly free up. If it's only been parked a few weeks it should not be heavily corroded and should not take much to free off.

If you can't free it you could take the wheel off and try heating and hitting the drum with some torque on it.

As a last resort if you need to drag it out, if you can jack that wheel up and put it a metal tray under it that will slide much more easily.

[geeks]

LDV Convoy? To me on that vid it looks like it clearly isn't releasing the handbrake

[paintman]

Agree with GreenV8S.

Shoes rusting to the drums is very common on trailers/caravans & is the main reason why leaving the handbrake on on them long term isn't a good idea. Done it myself years ago on a caravan. Twin axle so twice the fun.
I leave my boat trailer's handbrake off when it's parked for more than a few days & use a chain & lock to stop some well-meaning person putting it on - which happened before I put the chain on & resulted in the shoes sticking which I only found when I went to fetch the trailer to recover the boat from the harbour. Chocks & a wheel clamp stop any rolling away issues.

IF you can jack it up & slacken adjusters then you MIGHT be able to free it off but I've seen a few trailers where just dragging until something breaks was the only answer. The shoes were usually the thing that gave up & either released or were damaged beyond repair.