Hand brake busted

[copilot]

Help! My hand brake has just gone with a bang. I've had the car on a ramp and the sleave moves on both rear wheels so I think the sleaving has possible pulled through the fixing at the hand brake end. If it is at the front do you access this from under the car by removing the heat shield (pop riveted) or from above by removing the console? Either way, it looks complicated/labour intensive. Any ideas?

[Cyclone1]

Hi Dave,

Can't really help you with the hand brake, except to say that most are pretty useless, but I am sure someone will be along shortly to offer advice.

Good to see another S Yorks owner though.

Jules.

[mad mark]

That all depends on what part of the cable you need to get at!

I posted a pic a few months ago which might give you a clue as to what you will see above the heat sheild.
Basicly the 2 cables join into 1 above the heat shield at an adjuster. The single cable then goes on to join up with the handbrake cable.
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=6&t=301972

To remove the heat shield you have to remove the chasis cradle and the exhaust then drill out 10 or 12 rivits. Its not too difficult, if you can get under there.

I've got another pic that i can upload if you want, but its not too brill.

Edited by mad mark on Saturday 28th October 14:03

[mad mark]

I would also say that if you are a DIYer then once you've got rid of the pop rivits tap some threads in the holes and replace the rivits with small bolts.
Thats what I've done, and it makes things so much easier in the future.

[jensena]

Access it from the Inside.
Remove the Centre console - undo the small self tapper at the lower edge of the console on the drivers side transmission tunnel, about level with the handbrake.
Remove tghe Helmet holder thingy in between the rear seats, Lift the whole centre console (it might have a couple of self tappers holding it - some so, some dont - then get something to wedge it in place so you can get to the handbrake.

[copilot]

Thanks guys, i've just lifted the centre console, and I can't see how you can access the underside of the hand brake from here so i think i'm missing something with that route. There are nuts that could be removed and may be the hand brake that lifts away, but I'm not sure where this would take me in the repair process. I think it's going to be a case of dropping the exhaust and removing the heat shield (as if I know, i've only had the car for one day). Looks like I need to find someone with a pit/lift. Had a look at the pics of the underside of the car which are a great help. Any further info/advice/pics would be a great help. Thanks again everyone.

[kojak]

There are two locknuts for adjusting the handbrake above the back axle, and it was the nuts that had slipped a couple of threads on mine. I managed to fasten a jubilee clip to stop it slipping on the thread. The hand brake is now as good as it was originally, which wasnt great anyway.

[mad mark]

The only other pics I could find are these....

The first shows the underneath of the handbrake lever (not very clear)


And the second shows the route of the cable


I've left them quite big so you can save them and zoom in a bit.

I would say that you need to determine which end you think its broken from before ripping everything apart.

[copilot]

Thanks for the extra pics & for the jubilee clip advice. I'll keep you posted (might take a while as I got some driving to do!). Dave.

[copilot]

Hand break fixed. The plastic adjusters had slipped. I'm going to fix a clip behind them to stop them slipping again. Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Steve_T]

I'm not sure exactly what he did, I've never looked, but Dave Batty adjusted mine such that it actually works like a normal handbrake - works on hills and everything. I gather the handbrake works on brake shoes pushing onto the inside of the bell or the rear brake disc. I suspect if you take bit of time understanding how the mechanism works and adjusting things you'll be sorted too.

Steve