Re: Replacement of brakes

[etlddle@domain.elided ( David Luke XL/EE )]

This is a common problem, and could be due to one or two reasons:

1. Handbrake cable overstretched, new one required, only about 11 UKP.

2. Handbrake actuator lever worn at rear end where it touches the trailing
   shoe. This happened on my car, and is easy to fix. Simply remove the
   actuating lever (cylinder must come out I'm afraid for this) and build
   up the worn away recess with weld. While the rear brakes are dismantled
   you can reset the automatic adjuster on the leading shoe.

   Once you reassemble everything you will notice that the two levers that
   the handbrake cable pulls against are pointing much more towards the rear
   of the car, allowing a longer cable length and, more importantly, a
   better point of leverage, which will minimise the effort required in
   hauling up the handbrake in the car.

   I carried out this work, and went from an MOT test failure to a handbrake
   that can easily lock up both rear wheels at 30 miles per hour.

These handbrake actuating levers are no longer available new, so repairs
by hand are necessary I'm afraid.

Good luck, Dave Luke, 73 Rover V8 stag, Pimento.